The Reasons Most Attorneys with 5+ Years of Law Firm Experience Are in Serious Trouble (and Seven Steps They Need to Take to Save Their Legal Careers)

When an attorney gets more than six or seven years of law firm experience and does not have a substantial amount of business – in all but the healthiest of law firms (i.e., law firms with a ton of business) – he or she becomes a liability, with his or her job is at risk.

1.  Go in-house.
2. Get more business.
3. Find a healthy law firm.
4. Find an advocate inside your law firm with a lot of business.
5. Wait for a better economic environment.
6. Downgrade the quality of the firm they work for and/or start their own practice.
7. Stop practicing law completely.

These seven choices are so fundamental to attorneys and their careers that I will evaluate all of them below. I have been a legal recruiter for the majority of my career, and most of what I do is related to helping attorneys make decisions when they do not have any business.

As a preliminary matter, I would like to answer the question: "How important is business?" Simply stated, few things are more important to your longevity and survival as an attorney as having business.

Let me tell you a couple of stories about how important business is.

I know one attorney who has been practicing for approximately 20 years now. Since he was about six or seven years out of law school, he has consistently had about $1 million to $3 million in business.

Like clockwork, he switches firms about every 12 to 18 months. He has worked for at least 15 firms. He is currently working for a law firm that is an AmLaw 100 firm. He has well-known substance abuse problems and a penchant for spending lots of free time with prostitutes. When he leaves firms, he generally pisses them off. He has enemies all around the city he works in and a horrible reputation for being a job hopper.

NO ONE CARES.

He can move firms whenever he wants to. His reputation, drinking during the day, doing coke binges at night, being seen with prostitutes – none of it matters!

HE HAS BUSINESS.

Law firms need business. Large or small, prestigious or not, a law firm cannot survive without business. It is what keeps the lights on, and it is what gives associates jobs and keeps the higher-ups employed.

Let me tell you another story about how important business is.

If a partner from a major, major law firm – Skadden, Gibson Dunn and so forth – wants to move firms, the first question they will be asked is: "How much business do you have?" (How much lawyers get paid is in direct relation to the amount of business they have.)

If the answer is "zero," then in all but the rarest cases, the conversation stops there. No matter how solid your work experience is, law firms need business production. I have seen partners from Skadden Arps, Sidley & Austin, Jones Day, Sherman & Sterling, and more have careers that simply ended when the firm decided they no longer had a use for them, because they did not have enough business. Whether someone who gave them work left the firm, the firm lost a major client, or the firm restructured, the firm still makes the decision to part ways with the partner.

Once that happens, the partner tries like mad to get into another law firm. I have placed tons of people like this (more on that later), but for most partners without business, there is a very cold reception and the odds of getting into a significant law firm are almost zero for many of them. Legal work experience alone garners little attention. No one is interested in partners without business for the most part – and partners know it.

I have even seen federal judges retire and try to return to law firms. Even they do not receive the warmest of receptions from law firms!

I've had partners inside of major law firms in major cities, but with no business, making $500,000 a year banging down my door to make $175,000 in an in-house position in the middle of the Texas panhandle, in the swamps of Louisiana and so forth – anywhere they believe their careers will be safe. If you do not have a lot of business at a law firm, you are in a very dangerous situation indeed.

When an attorney with a few million in business wants to change firms, the discussion with a new law firm is generally based on how much they will keep of the business they currently bring in and work on. If they have $3 million in business, one firm may let them keep 30% of what they work on and 15% of what others work on. Another firm may allow them to keep 25% of what they work on and 15% of what others work on. Firms screw with these percentages and numbers all the time. The point you need to understand when asking, “How much does a lawyer make at this firm?” is that partners receive more money if they do the work themselves. This point is so fundamental to the practice of law and the salaries of senior associates at law firms that I will illustrate it here:

Imagine two partners with $1 million in business.

Firm Compensation Model: You get 30% of what you work on and 15% of what others do.

•  Partner "A" does all of his/her own work and makes $300,000
• Partner "B" does none of his/her own work and makes $150,000

This is grossly simplistic, but clearly it is always in the partner's best interest to do their own work. Also, law firms need to present bills to clients that make the clients happy. It looks much better to have a bunch of work done by junior associates because they are cheaper, which (theoretically) keeps the bills down. As associates become more senior, their billing rates become closer to what partners charge per hour. This does not look as good to the client AND the partner with the business would much rather do work billed out at a higher level themselves – after all, the partner has the relationship with the client and makes more money that way.

 The problem that senior associates, of-counsel attorneys and partners face is very straightforward. Just like young associates are judged by the number of hours they can bill (i.e., how much more revenue they generate than their salary) and how good they look on paper (i.e., schools, grades, and so forth), partners are judged by how much business they have. Partners generally stay employed and are compensated based on the amount of business that they have and, most importantly, the amount of their own work that they do.

If you are a partner or a senior associate with little or no business and your job is in danger, you typically have the following choices: 

1. Go in-house.

Generally, attorneys go in-house because they have to. In-house attorneys are often people who, for whatever reason, are having a difficult time playing the law firm game any longer.

I am not trying to be harsh or offensive by saying this, but it is true. The people we see going in-house most often are women who want to start a family or spend more time with their children, people who are sick of long hours, attorneys without business and no future at their law firm, and people without the overall commitment needed to continue practicing law at a high level. These are all valid reasons to go in-house, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with not having what is required by large law firms. You can often have a much better life going in-house than working in a law firm, but you are no longer playing the game.

Is this always the case? No. I've seen attorneys go to work at hedge funds and make millions. I've worked with people who became the general counsels of major corporations. So, of course, going in-house is not always "giving up" – but it is the majority of the time. 

I talk to extremely talented attorneys all the time who are interested in going in-house. I was working with a fifth-year attorney recently who had over $1 million in business and had brought in a couple of major Las Vegas casinos as clients. He wanted to go in-house to an easier job. I asked him: "Are you kidding?" This guy is the perfect candidate for a law firm. He's barely 30 years old and already has a decent book of business in a major U.S. law firm. I told him exactly what I am going to tell you:

"Going in-house is like going to medical school, getting a job with one of the best hospitals in the country as a brain surgeon, and then deciding to give it all up to become a nurse in a small clinic."

In all honesty, this is generally what going in-house is all about. You have no pressure to generate business. You are not doing the most sophisticated legal work – the law firms hired by the company are. You are not surrounded by people pushing you to do the best possible legal work. You are not around the best attorneys. There is much less pressure, but the work will never be as high-level or demanding.

But do not take my word for it. It doesn’t matter if the person comes out of the legal department at Apple, Google, General Motors – or any other well-known company. This person could be the #2 or even the #1 person in the department. When in-house attorneys lose their jobs (or quit), it is almost impossible to get large law firms interested in them. One would think the relationships and the potential to bring in business matters – but none of it matters. If someone goes in-house, the perception is that they have "given up" on what it takes to be a performer in a law firm, and that is it.

The law firm world is enormously competitive. I just sent a partner in New York with $4 million in business to Gibson Dunn. The firm called me and asked, “What’s his billing rate?" I told them it was $785 an hour.

They told me that was too low and hung up the phone.

Practicing law is a serious game. If you step off the fast track, it will be very difficult to ever get back on. It does happen (in intellectual property and real estate – if the market is really good), but it is rare. That is why the decision to go in-house should be thought out very carefully. But if you do not have any business, going in-house may be a good option.

2. Get more business.

If you do not have any business, the most logical path of action is to get some. That is all you need to do. Once you have business, you are suddenly in control of your career. Law firms will be interested in you, and you can move when you want and where you want. You are operating your own little business, servicing your clients and doling out your work to partners and other associates.

THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF BEING AN ATTORNEY. LEARN YOUR CRAFT, BE GOOD AT IT, AND THEN GO GET CLIENTS.

What does it say about a person if they do not have any business? Well, it says a lot. Partners inside of large law firms who have no business will say things like "We only have institutional clients" and so forth. Which may be true, but it is not persuasive. The assumption is that if you are good, you will have business – regardless of the firm you work for.

When I was a second-year associate, I had plenty of business. I take what I do very seriously and people know it. I'm writing this article, for example, and I take recruiting extremely seriously. When I was a practicing attorney, I took that unbelievably seriously. I do the absolute best I can. I never give up. What sort of attorney would you want representing you?

If an attorney is driven, hardworking, and gets out socially to show other people this work ethic, then he or she will get business. People will always give work to people who take what they do incredibly seriously. You need to get out there and write about it, talk about it, and be enthusiastic about it. This is how attorneys get more business.

I started out my career at Quinn Emanuel, a firm that had so much work it was unbelievable. They had some very gifted business generators there, but they were not interested in using their associates that way. They had too much work as it was. They needed soldiers. There are very few firms like this. Because they had so much work and did not require people to generate business, they could demand their associates work incredible hours – 3,000+ per year to make partner.

I left to go to a firm where I thought my ability to generate business would be valued. It was a strategic and correct choice for me. I knew that the prospects of long-term survival in the legal profession were not good for me if I was not in the position to stand out by generating a lot of business. Business is the most important thing any attorney can do. If any firm tells you that you do not need business, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. You need business everywhere. If you are switching firms, you may even need portable business. The only thing that a lack of business will get you is an insecure future where you are at the mercy of others.

Most of the partners I knew when I was at Quinn are no longer there. They are in smaller firms trying to make a living with no business. Many worked 3,000+ hours a year for decades but never brought in any business. The firm (as all firms eventually do) started chopping away at the compensation and security of the partners without business, and many left or were asked to leave. There is nothing wrong with this, and Quinn is a great firm. This is just how the legal industry works.

Firms will allow you to kill yourself doing lots of work for them for as long as it suits them – but it never lasts forever. And if you do not have business, law firms can basically pay you whatever they want (within reason).

I have received phone calls from partners in major American law firms making $120,000 a year. The firms pay them less than junior associates – because they can. I once saw a major law firm in Los Angeles offer a real estate partner $60,000 a year when real estate was very, very slow.

"Are you kidding?" I asked them.

"No, we are the only firm with any work. We can pay him whatever we want."

Business is incredibly important. If you do not have any business, you do not have any power. You cannot move firms. You cannot reliably forecast your future compensation. You can be pushed around.

When I was practicing law at Dewey Ballantine, there was a senior associate/counsel attorney in the office next to me making $200,000+ a year. He was living in a 600-square foot studio apartment with his wife across the street from the office. He would eat packaged noodles for lunch to save money.

"Why do you live like this?" I asked him.

"I've been doing this long enough to know that I could lose my job any day and not be able to find a new one," he said. "I do not have any business."

The only security that you are ever going to truly find comes from getting business.

Teaching you exactly how to get business is beyond the scope of this article – however, if you really want business, the surefire way to get business is to really, REALLY want to get business. In order to really want business, you need to really want to be an attorney. If you really want to be an attorney, you are going to try your hardest to be the best attorney you can be. You will work harder and do everything possible to accomplish what is expected of you and more.

This is overly simplistic, yet true. The people who want something the most are the ones who get it.

I have led classes before to teach attorneys how to generate business. The attorneys who paid the few thousand dollars I charged for these classes generally ended up getting business quickly after they joined. I taught a lot of things in these classes – how to network, how to be seen as a giver in the market, how to be found by potential clients, and more. But the real reason the attorneys who took these classes got business (and a lot of it) is because THEY WERE THE ONES WHO REALLY WANTED BUSINESS. They were willing to pay for a course and do the work. It is as simple as that.

Why do so many people from super prestigious schools become successful so often? It's not because something special is being taught in these schools. It is because they worked really hard and got into these super prestigious schools to begin with. They were already destined to be successful before they even started. In fact, some of the most successful people – Harvard dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates – were on such a fast upward trajectory that they left school early rather than be constrained by the time it takes to graduate.

You need to really want business, and once you do, you will figure out ways to get it.

3. Find a healthy law firm.

This is a large part of what I do for a living. I am very good at finding healthy law firms for associates and partners without business. It is, believe it or not, quite possible.

When I started my career, one of my first placements was a securities partner with no business who had not worked in five years. I found him a job with a law firm in a smaller area that needed someone to be a personal securities attorney for a multi-billionaire client of theirs. This law firm had a long-standing relationship with the billionaire, and the situation worked out very well for everyone involved.

I've recently had some luck in markets where they are doing a lot of oil fracking. Law firms in the middle of nowhere are exploding with work being generated by the wealth from this.

A few months ago, I was talking with a solo practitioner in Detroit. He was a real estate attorney who had been running his own solo practice for about 20 years. He had a good education and had at one time worked in a large law firm. He needed a job and was hoping I might be able to find him something in Palm Beach.

"I called you because the Detroit real estate market is exploding right now," I told him. "Most of the major law firms there will take you seriously – even with no business. I understand the market, and there are so many openings there that it is clear to me they need people to do the work."

The solo practitioner was not hearing any of it. "I find that hard to believe. Plus, I see people from these firms around town. I would be embarrassed if they knew I did not have any business. I just would not want to put myself out there like that."

To my astonishment, I was 100% right about the direction of the market. I was speaking with one of the more prestigious firms in Detroit a few weeks later, and they said: "We do not care what kind of real estate attorney we hire. We just need someone with a lot of experience."

A few weeks after that, they hired another senior attorney from a small Detroit firm at $290,000 a year.

A good recruiter knows where the work is. At any point in time, some firms have a lot of work and others have very little work. GETTING WORK IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Work moves within firms in various cities and various markets in response to all sorts of economic currents that only the best recruiters can see. These economic currents determine where the work is. For example, patent prosecution for electrical engineers and computer scientists is generally always active in the Bay Area. If you are a patent prosecutor and lose a job in another part of the country, the odds of finding employment in this market are very good.

Over the past several months, all sorts of openings for patent attorneys with life sciences backgrounds have opened up in New York City. There are new cancer drugs under development that large law firms there are also involved with, and there are a ton of other openings in New York. Historically, openings for life science patent attorneys have been strong in San Diego and Orange County outside of Los Angeles. But now that market is also strong in New York.

New York is generally a very difficult market to find work in because competition is so fierce. Going to a top law school carries a lot of weight in many markets but in New York, it is less important than where you are working now and where you have worked in the past.

In recessions, work often moves to smaller markets where legal work is cheaper. Instead of sending work to a large law firm in a major market, a company may send work to smaller firms in a smaller market to save money. Understanding these dynamics is important and can help protect your career.

I have seen certain markets, such as Rochester, New York, experience these "economic Renaissances" when major cities were having the opposite experience.

In recessions, corporate law often gets very, very slow, and there are few jobs. People sue more in recessions and litigation picks up – however, because law firms start relying on litigation for their profits during recessions, clients often realize the bills are too high and start settling lawsuits rather than bearing the expense. Then litigation slows down (often dramatically) and litigation becomes a slow practice group.

When interest rates are low but look like they are about to go up, real estate often picks up steam as people begin refinancing their properties before interest rates increase.

When economic activity and the legal market get very active, it generally begins on the coasts (in the Bay Area and New York) and then takes months to reach the Midwest and Texas. The same thing goes for economic slowdowns as well.

One market, Washington, DC, has never slowed down in the entire 15+ years I have been recruiting.

The fact is that at any point in time, work is moving within various markets – from large to mid-sized firms, from practice area to practice area, and from city to city.

If you are looking for a position, it is important to understand that just because you cannot find work in your current market does not mean there is no work available. The smartest thing you can often do is to look in a new area, and you will discover the work.

It is also important to understand the nature of law firms as dynamic economic systems. Law firms often start and grow because of some sort of visionary founder or leader. These founders are able to see some way of getting business or pleasing clients that others in the market do not see. All over the country, there are tens of thousands of law firms starting like this as we speak. What happens with these law firms is they typically grow in an aggressive fashion, making numerous mistakes along the way. (One law firm I know grew so aggressively that it did not even notice that one of its "attorneys" had never graduated from law school or passed the bar, despite having been there for six years. It finally noticed when he was up for partner and the firm was in the process of getting a quote for malpractice insurance for him.)

When a law firm is in a growth mode like this, it hires people recklessly and quickly. It is not carefully managed, and it often believes that growth and success will continue indefinitely. These firms will hire senior people without business because they are over-confident. They are great firms to get jobs in, and the best recruiters know how to find them.

What eventually happens to all of these firms, though, is they either die when they get over-extended and cannot meet their obligations – or in most cases, they become professionally managed and start instituting all sorts of procedures.

• They start grade point cutoffs – even for partners.
• They start requiring minimum amounts of business (which always increases).
• They have thorough performance reviews.
• They become much harder to get jobs in.
• They start having multiple tiers of partnership.

You get the idea. The point is that the more mature a firm gets, the less likely a firm is to hire people who fit outside the box of what it is used to looking for.

Recently, I was working with a very talented attorney from the Department of Justice who spent several years at a major firm and was about 10 years out of law school. He had worked directly with one of the most influential attorneys at the Justice Department. The attorney had graduated at the top of his class from Stanford Law School and had an incredible record in all respects.

I sent him to a major firm in Washington, DC that did the same sort of work this attorney did. I received a phone call from an administrator there: "I've been told to reject all attorneys with more than 6 years of experience and no business. That is our blanket policy and there are no exceptions."

I contacted a partner I knew at the firm. "I agree it is stupid not to talk to this guy," the partner told me, "but that's our policy."

More established firms are always going to be much more difficult to get into. An attorney needs to find a firm that is growing and has not "settled in" if he or she hopes to get into a new firm without business.

Find an advocate inside your law firm with a lot of business.

The dumbest thing that any attorney inside of any law firm can do is not bust ass doing work for partners with a lot of business. You should shine their shoes and walk their dog if they ask you to. People with a lot of business can actually make your entire career if you do good work for them.

A strong advocate with a lot of business is what most young attorneys need to make partner and stay a partner inside of a large law firm. I've seen more attorneys than I can count make partner due to a relationship with another partner who has a lot of business. I HAVE SEEN MORE ATTORNEYS THAN I CAN COUNT NOT MAKE PARTNER AND LOSE THEIR JOBS DUE TO AN ABSENCE OF THESE SORTS OF RELATIONSHIPS.

The most important relationships you can have inside of law firms are with the partners who have business – these are the same people who the decision-makers listen to and who the law firm wants to keep happy. Law firms do not ever want to piss off partners with a lot of business if they can help it. They need their work and the money the partners generate. These are the people you need to work for, be loyal to, and impress.

I am not suggesting you actually become a sycophant who walks the dog for your boss – but you do need to do good work and show a ton of respect. You should (at the very least) get in the office before them and leave after them. Never say negative things about them. Show them respect and work harder than they do.

You need to be seen as the first choice and the indispensable choice of partners with a lot of business. They should feel that you are 100% needed and that they cannot imagine life without you. If you do this, your career will always be safe. They will gingerly take you from firm to firm with them and make sure you survive (mostly) no matter what.

Your career is not about your ego. It is about surviving and learning enough to survive on your own. You should work for people with a lot of business because they will show you how they get a lot of business. Find a mentor at your law firm and take the advice you are given. By watching and learning how these people operate, you will pick up more than you even realize – from their mannerisms to ways of working with clients – and this will help you when you start going after your own clients.

I know very well-compensated partners in their mid-60s who have been working for the same (now octogenarian) partners for their entire careers. When you work hard for people with a lot of business, they will take pride in taking care of you and helping you.

5. Wait for a healthy economic environment.

If you are unhappy at your current firm, and do not have enough work or any business, if you wait long enough the economic environment will improve. Every market eventually improves. This is just how it works. And when the economic environment gets active enough, there will be work somewhere – maybe even in a better firm than you are at right now.

When a market gets "white hot," all of the sudden all sorts of attorneys who would not usually be marketable become marketable. 

• In-house attorneys suddenly become marketable to law firms.
• Attorneys without business suddenly become marketable to law firms.
• Attorneys from fourth-tier law schools start getting jobs in major American law firms.

This happens in every hot market. If you wait long enough, you will become marketable when the market heats up.

Markets like tax, trust and estates, ERISA, and others that are traditionally "very slow" in large law firms have recently heated up and become very active. A senior ERISA attorney with 20+ years of experience is placeable in this market – as is an ERISA attorney from a fourth-tier law school. A year later, these practice areas may be on the skids and something else will take their place. The point is this – if you wait long enough, you will generally become marketable, even without business.

6. Downgrade the quality of law firm you work for and/or start your own practice.

You can generally get at least some type of job if you want to. There are all sorts of firms and attorneys (worker's compensation, insurance defense, personal injury, employment, intellectual property, real estate, tax, solo practitioners) who need help at various points in time. There are lots of these jobs out there. It is work and it will not pay well, but it is there. I have seen countless big firm attorneys and others switch law firms to take jobs like these, just so they have something to do – which often makes a lot of sense when there is nothing else out there.

If you are "cast out" of the high class because you do not have any money (i.e., portable business), then you need to go back to associating and working with people who will have you. They will likely not be as "classy" or have the same high-class habits (i.e., quality of work) or associate in the same high-class circles (i.e., work with important clients) – but they will have work for you. You can always move up to a larger and better firm if you do well there.

I have seen numerous attorneys go to work in smaller firms and then move back up to the big leagues years later. It happens all the time. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO AS AN ATTORNEY IS TO STAY EMPLOYED AND KEEP GOING. Never give up.

You can also take contract work. Many attorneys spend their careers doing this, even after years of working in major law firms as associates. You can often make a good living as a contract attorney.

Many attorneys also start their own law firms. This is very common, but also very risky.

Most attorneys I know who have started their own law firms after time in a larger law firm do not do that well. Why would they? They were let go from their existing firms due to a lack of business. How on earth do they expect to suddenly start getting business without the resources, name, and support of a larger law firm? This is about as nonsensical as it gets. However, starting a law firm with a partner who can generate more business could lead to greater success.

If you want to start your own practice – and I know tons of attorneys who have done it successfully – you sure as hell better believe that some of the clients of your firm would come to you because (1) they like you, (2) they trust you, (3) they are dissatisfied with the law firm, and (4) you are going to be a lot cheaper.

If you do not have that, at a minimum you must have a "niche" as well as a business idea for your practice. All it takes is just one good idea. I have seen some attorneys become FABULOUSLY RICH with good ideas about a certain type of lawsuit to file or a certain type of client to go after. It can be done and it is quite common – but you need an idea.Just hanging out a shingle is a very, very risky proposition when you are coming from a major law firm with nothing else to offer. It is very hard to get people to pay. It is very hard to get clients to come to you – and there are a myriad of issues you better be ready for. No one cares if you are a great brief writer or went to Cornell Law School out in the real world. They have problems they need solved.

It is better to start and try your hand at your own firm, though, than to quit practicing law altogether.

7. You can stop practicing law completely.

This can be the right decision. Some attorneys are simply not meant to be practicing law. However, many attorneys are meant to be practicing law and should never even entertain the thought of quitting. If you are considering this, carefully weigh the reasons to quit – and reasons not to quit – practicing law before making your decision.

There is no shortage of extremely talented attorneys who stopped practicing law and now have great careers in politics, public relations, sales, business, and other pursuits. Today’s world offers a huge variety of traditional and nontraditional jobs that you can do with a law degree. Often, because being an attorney is so demanding, these attorneys have far more illustrious and exciting careers than they ever would have if they had remained practicing law. Also, consider how much a lawyer usually makes. If you can make more in a job outside of the legal profession, you should certainly consider it. The sky’s the limit – many actors, authors, artists, and TV personalities with law degrees became famous without practicing law.

However, if you really enjoy practicing law, you need to get out there and get business to survive. How much lawyers make is highly dependent on bringing business in. But quitting something because you are not doing an important component of the job well does not make sense, especially at a pivotal point in your career. Far too many attorneys quit at the stage of their careers when they have great experience – all because of a lack of business.

Conclusions

Building business is fundamental to long-term survival as an attorney. If you do not have business, you have several options to choose from. But to continue being an attorney, you need to find access to work from somewhere. Without work, you cannot stay employed as an attorney. 

When attorneys come to me who are senior and do not have any business, I try to be very clear with them about what they are up against. At this point in the game, I usually cannot get them business – or show them how – so I do what I do best, which is finding law firms "on the way up" with a lot of work. Oftentimes, I start aggressively marketing the attorney in a variety of cities around the country (and sometimes the world).

The good news is that something always opens up if enough time passes and the attorney is willing to look in enough markets. There are exceptions to this, of course. If you are in your late 60s or 70s, your odds will be severely diminished. There are many reasons why older attorneys have a more difficult time getting law firm jobs, from salary expectations to health concerns. Other universal issues can greatly hinder your job search, regardless of age. If you have a bad attitude, your odds are severely diminished. If you are not willing to work hard, your odds are severely diminished. If you have burned too many bridges, your odds are severely diminished.