This is the first official edition of Career GPS, Threshold’s new blog designed to support lawyers’ momentum toward career success. As a lawyer who left a 20+ year career in the law, I am now in my third iteration, still “practicing” with “clients” as a career management and executive coach. (An intermediate stop as a businessperson in a publically traded financial services company leading as many as 11 direct reports and 75 people on three different teams informs my coaching today.) From my vantage point as a real estate and corporate lawyer, in firms both large and small and several in-house settings, as a business client and consumer of legal services, and as a coach working with lawyers, I have witnessed and/or personally experienced the evolution of the legal profession from the “gentlemen’s profession” it was when I first entered the field as a paralegal in the ’70s to the highly competitive “business” it is today.
Many have decried the changes that have occurred…gone is the collegiality of the profession and the security of “partners” who respected, supported, and relied upon each other through years of working together toward common goals. Others have embraced the changes and have been the primary beneficiaries of the highly profitable business that the law has become over the last 40+ years. But, whether you have embraced these changes or denied them, there is no question that the legal profession is continuing to shift and change. The jury is still out as to what it will look like in the decades to come. Numerous books and articles have been written on this topic since the “great recession” accelerated the change that was already taking place, and prognostications abound; yet, in my view, the future remains uncertain and unclear.
Some things are clear, however. It is clear that change in the legal profession will keep on coming…there is no going back to the “good old days.” It is clear that the impact of this change, and the current uncertainty about the future, upon the careers of individual lawyers has been, and will continue to be, profound. It is clear that, while many of the skills and attributes that propelled lawyers to success decades ago remain constant, new and/or additional skills are needed to succeed today. It is clear that what constitutes “success” as a lawyer is evolving and will continue to evolve as the profession evolves.
Therefore, lawyers at every age and career stage need to take a hard, realistic look at where they are today and where they might best fit into this evolving landscape…failure to do so is a recipe for disaster. All lawyers, from recent graduates to those approaching retirement, need a strategy and a plan for their career that reflects the current state of the profession as well as a thoughtful and informed assessment of what might reasonably be anticipated for the future. This strategy, and the tactics required to actually execute it, will differ for everyone depending upon their individual circumstances; but, the following are a few questions that every lawyer must ask himself or herself in light of today’s legal landscape:
These questions are only the beginning. But, if you take the time to thoughtfully consider and answer them, you will have a head start on creating and executing a plan that is realistic and achievable today and in the foreseeable future, and will have programmed your GPS to direct you toward “success” YOUR way.