blog | Lord Gurman & Lewis LLC

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Five Keys to Helping Law Firm Partners Embrace Retirement

Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons

Strategies for tackling the thorny issue of partner retirement.

Monday, January 15, 2018

What Determines “Market Rate” Salary For Candidates?

by Jon Lewis

One question that candidates often ask legal recruiters is “What is the going market rate in terms of salary for someone with my experience?” The question is certainly a reasonable one, but the answer, and the forces driving that answer, aren’t necessarily what all candidates expect to hear.

Friday, November 06, 2015

Job Searches and Bonus Season

by Jon Lewis

Now that we have hit November, a number of significant occasions loom larger on the horizon: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and, last but not least, law firm bonus announcements are all just around the corner. This time of year, legal recruiters hear the following from candidates with great frequency: “I’m putting my search on hold until after I collect my bonus; call me back next year.”

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Attorney Career Planning and Realistic Expectations

by Jon Lewis

Most of you readers don’t know this, but I am a very lucky person. In fact, I’m so darned lucky that I’m fairly certain that someday soon I’m going to win a multi-million-dollar lottery jackpot. Which means that I don’t need to worry at all about planning for my eventual retirement. No, not really. I’m actually no luckier than normal, and need to save for retirement just like most people ... What, you might ask, does the above have to do with an article about legal careers?

Friday, December 05, 2014

In-House Insights

by Jon Lewis

Ask a legal recruiter to name the one thing he or she hears most often from candidates and there’s a good chance the answer will be “I want to go in-house.” For many candidates, an in-house position seems like the holy grail of legal jobs, the solution to all the shortcomings of life at a law firm. But there are potential pitfalls ...

Thursday, December 04, 2014

The Illusion of Job Security and Practical Implications

by Andrew Gurman

Many have seen the practice of law at major, large law firms or within an in-house setting as a safe choice for earning solid compensation and enjoying excellent job stability. That conception suffered during the Great Recession in the face of mass Biglaw and significant corporate in-house layoffs. But long-term stability was lacking even before that time ...

Sunday, November 30, 2014

How Important are Performance Reviews?

by Andrew Gurman

Associates often wonder what to make of their annual or semi-annual performance reviews. Firms may seem to minimize their importance by providing them weeks or months after they were originally supposed to take place, or even neglecting them altogether. But performance reviews do matter and can provide a bevy of information for attorneys who listen carefully to the explicit and implicit messages contained within them. Here are three varieties of performance reviews ...

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Legal Career Path Mistakes

by Jon Lewis and Michael Lord

For the most part, it is very difficult to provide one-size-fits-all career advice for attorneys. The same guidance which may make perfect sense for a senior associate hoping to make partner at a Vault 100 firm may be of little use to a second year at a small firm who is looking to someday go in-house. However, regardless of class year/credentials/objectives there do exist some universal pitfalls which all attorneys should try to avoid ...