Finding a Job in a Down Market

I made a video recently called “Job Search Secrets for a Recession”, which discussed the best way to locate a position during a recession.  In my experience, the best way to find a job is and always has been to approach the widest variety of employers possible. There is another aspect to finding a job in a down economy, however, which is even more important – your own psyche.  The psychological aspect of finding a job is what slows most people down in their search.  People get depressed and stop taking action.  This is [Read more]

The Heller Ehrman Dissolution

The dissolution of Heller Ehrman is an event that makes me quite sad.  The September 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal stated one reason for the dissolution was several major cases the firm had been working on settled, and therefore the firm now had much less litigation work on its plate. I really liked Heller and the people there.  It was, in its time, a great firm to work for as a litigator.  With this recent news, what really burns in my mind is the idea that a firm could suddenly go kaput due to cases settling. I have been involved in litigation several times as both a litigator and as the CEO of EmploymentScape.  In speaking with attorneys (outside counsel), I am always struck by how expensive they can make litigation. The work they do is often unnecessary or extraneous, and the goal of many law firms (and I say many, not all) often seems to be to get cases and start milking them for fees, until the client will no longer pay and/or the case settles.  Incredibly, what usually seems to happen with most litigation, after discovery and motions, is the parties settle and the resulting net gains or losses from the settlement are no different than if the parties had not litigated at all. None of this [Read more]

The Job Search Market in a Bad Economy

I recently had a discussion with a manager of Legal Authority, my favorite job search company for attorneys, about exactly what happens in the market when there is a recession.  Specifically we discussed what occurs in the job market for attorneys—who gets hired and who does not get hired.  Since I have been witnessing this process take place for years, I thought learning the dynamics of it would be interesting. On its most basic level, what happens during an economic recession is that jobs in the legal community involving transactional work slow down for the most part, while jobs involving litigation speed up.  Litigation tends to increase when the economy gets bad, because people are more aware of losses in their business dealings caused by the wrongdoing of other parties, and they sue. Corporate, securities, and real estate related jobs all typically slow down dramatically during a recession.  This may also be the case for patent law, although there is typically a greater lag time.  Patent work already in the system (“in stream”) continues, but [Read more]

The Importance of Giving Access to Information–and Doing Good

I am frequently reminded we are on this earth for a relatively short time.  While we are here, it is in our best interest to create an abundance of outgoing goodness and love, and to simultaneously limit the amount of hate, anger, and sorrow that comes into our lives.  Indeed this can be much of the struggle of human existence. At times it seems the more good we attempt to put out into the world, and the more people we try to reach, the more the world challenges us by creating new obstacles.  These obstacles actually serve [Read more]

The Effect of a Weakening Economy on the Job Market

In the latter half of 2008 Wall Street and the banking system were undergoing major changes. I remember hearing the stress in people’s voices when I spoke to them in New York, and I believed we had reached a sea change of sorts, in the way the job market and the economy were about to shift. The economy was clearly in very serious trouble.  After 9/11, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates, which stimulated many housing purchases across the land, allowed for the refinancing of homes, and put a lot of money into the economy. This was [Read more]