Contact Harrison. You can attend anonymously and ask questions about your career, this article, or any other legal career-related topics. You can sign up for the weekly webinar here: Register on Zoom. You can browse a list of past webinars here: Webinar Replays. You can also read Harrison Barnes' articles and books here: Harrison's Perspectives.
Harrison Barnes is the legal profession's mentor and may be the only person in your legal career who will tell you why you are not reaching your full potential and what you really need to do to grow as an attorney--regardless of how much it hurts.
If you prefer truth to stagnation, growth to comfort, and actionable ideas instead of fluffy concepts, you and Harrison will get along just fine. If, however, you want to stay where you are, talk about your past successes, and feel comfortable, Harrison is not for you. Truly great mentors are like parents, doctors, therapists, spiritual figures, and others because in order to help you they need to expose you to pain and expose your weaknesses.
But suppose you act on the advice and pain created by a mentor. In that case, you will become better: a better attorney, better employees, a better boss, know where you are going, and appreciate where you have been--you will hopefully also become a happier and better person. As you learn from Harrison, he hopes he will become your mentor. To read more career and life advice articles visit Harrison's personal blog. Hi, I'm Harrison Barnes. I'm serious about improving Lawyers' legal careers.
My only question is, will it be yours? Harrison is the founder of BCG Attorney Search and several companies in the legal employment space that collectively gets thousands of attorneys jobs each year. Harrison is widely considered the most successful recruiter in the United States and personally places multiple attorneys most weeks. His articles on legal search and placement are read by attorneys, law students and others millions of times per year. My recruiter in New York has been great in facilitating my job search process and already identified several potential o I am writing to provide my unreserved praise of your recruiter, my legal placement professional.
She reached out to me i My recruiter was very professional. She responded and took a lot of questions both during office hours and outside of of I don't have experience working with any other search firms, but my legal placement professional was just really availab It's easy to deal with a The outcome was incredible.
I am exactly in the position that I always wanted to be in and dreamed of. This wouldn't hav When you use BCG Attorney Search you will get an unfair advantage because you will use the best legal placement company in the world for finding permanent law firm positions. Already a subscriber? Sign in here. Font Size Small Medium Large. What Does Of Counsel Mean? They will make you "of counsel. If you are not asked to leave after 12 to 14 years, Skadden and similar firms will generally make you "of counsel.
Someone who is of counsel at a firm like Skadden would almost certainly have been made a partner at a firm like Kirkpatrick and Lockhart , Kirkland and Ellis , or White and Case. Of counsel is an excellent "safety net" for outstanding legal practitioners who are not yet ready to be a partner at a major, major law office or who will never be. It is happy to do this all day long because it is profitable and gives the attorney enough security to remain happy.
Attorneys who do not want the pressure of being a partner in a law firm and just want to do their job and go home each night. There are all kinds of pressures that go along with being a partner that will be discussed later in this article. Many lawyers choose to become counsel after being a partner for some time simply because they do not want this pressure. An of counsel attorney would much rather just bill 1, hours a year and not be evaluated on all of the factors that partners are evaluated on business generation, collections, outside activities, mentoring, and so forth.
I have seen many great attorneys who were law firm partners in a major legal office tell the law firm they preferred to be of counsel. For many legal practitioners, this is a great choice. Attorneys who are older and may have left the legal office environment to go into politics, in-house, become a judge, or something else and want to return to the legal office. Then, he may go to work for the State Department or something similar for 15 years before deciding to return to the legal profession.
Lawyers like this can generally "make a deal" with these firms to come back in an of counsel role. The company will utilize this attorney's high-level government qualifications to impress clients, and everyone will be happy. The lawyer will be given as much work as the firm has to give him generally, not a ton of work , and much of this work may come from individuals who were contacts of this attorney. Also, the attorney can do work for clients who may flutter from time to time.
Attorneys who are simply very old and do not have the energy to work hard any longer. Many partners eventually start losing steam and no longer want to work long hours and face the pressure of bringing in clients. These lawyers may then decide that they would prefer to, instead, have a less stressful life that allows for the occasional golf game, days off during the week now and then, and regular vacations. Smart, nerdy lawyers without client generation skills whom the partners in the law office like.
There are generally attorneys inside of law firms who are very intelligent—some startlingly so—but who do not have the ability to bring in clients and in some cases even relate to them. They may be excellent writers, great at catching details in deals, and otherwise exceptional.
At the same time, they may not have the best interpersonal skills with other legal advisers in the company and may be more comfortable in their offices with their doors closed. These same legal practitioners are also quite often very committed to their law firm titles and loyal to the company. These are great candidates to be of counsel in a legal firm. Attorneys with various personal demons who have trouble "getting it together" but still do good work.
In one law firm I worked in, there was an attorney who was a graduate of Yale Law School and incredibly brilliant. He found himself in and out of the hospital for various psychological demons.
The firm—quite obviously—could not make him partner, but he worked very hard when he worked and provided a ton of value to the legal firm. He was of counsel. Attorneys in a legal profession area of the firm that does not have enough business to make it very profitable. Some law firms often get work from time to time to deal with bankruptcy, patent prosecution, trademark, trusts, and estates, or other practice areas.
Because the legal firm does not have a lot of work but needs senior people to do the work for important customers, it generally has a lawyer on its payroll in an of counsel role who is able to provide service to these customers when the work comes in. Large legal offices often have trust and estate practices for their larger clients, for example. Still, the money these practices generate is minimal compared to more active law practice groups such as litigation and corporate.
Therefore, the highest anyone can often go is of counsel in this law practice group. One interesting fact about these "niche" practice groups is that law firms often significantly reduce their hiring standards when bringing on associates. They do this because they want lawyers who will stay and not be overly ambitious and likely to leave. They want someone who will be happy graduating into a role such as of counsel. Thus, a trusts and estates practice may hire someone from the middle of their class who is attractive, refined, and has excellent social skills from a second-tier law school when the majority of them in the company went to the first-tier school of law.
Attorneys for niche management-related jobs inside of legal firms who do not necessarily involve a lot of interaction with customers. Large law firms often have lawyers who do things such as work on conflict checks and negotiate these conflicts with customers. They are often made of counsel, so they have some authority in the legal firm, but this is generally a glorified clerical-type role. In addition, legal offices often have individuals in various administrative positions that they make of counsel.
For example, the of counsel attorneys are often made company administrators and mediate various disputes among the lawyers and support staff of the law firm.
Other of counsel attorneys may work on collections for the legal office. Some may be in charge of firing individuals and doing exit interviews. Attorneys who may have a lot of other stuff going on outside businesses and so forth and want to maintain a connection with a legal firm.
Some lawyers may have outside interests that are very strong. Yet, they want to maintain a connection with a legal firm. I have even seen an of counsel attorney with a major law firm have a side solo legal office practice. Ask us anything in the comments and follow us on twitter onlawschool.
University of Chicago, J. Love your writing style!! Would you be interested in co-authoring? I have a few projects percolating.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel. Search for:. September 21, Introducing The Lawschooli. February 4, Try This… December 21, Contact jay. He runs Your Law Life LLC , which helps lawyers and firms improve their well-being and create saner, more successful law lives.
He is available for talks, presentations and confidential consultations. To different lawyers it means different things. The American Bar Association in Formal Opinion provided four different definitions: A part-time practitioner who practices law in association with a firm, but on a basis different from that of the mainstream lawyers in the firm. A retired partner of the firm who, although not actively practicing law, nonetheless remains associated with the firm and available for occasional consultation.
A lawyer who is, in effect, a probationary partner-to-be: usually a lawyer brought into the firm laterally with the expectation of becoming partner after a relatively short period of time.
A permanent status in between those of partner and associate, having the quality of tenure or something close to it, and lacking that of an expectation of likely promotion to full partner status. About the Author. Jay Reeves jay. My Policy NEW!
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