Career Resources For Lawyers in Transition

If you’re looking for work as a lawyer, or hoping to transition into an alternative career, be sure to check out the resources available through your state and local bar associations. Most bar associations have a career portal on their websites, and many have established committees specifically to deal with the recession’s impact on the profession. For example:

• The American Bar Association has an Economic Recovery Resources web page with a plethora of information, from job search and networking advice and articles on practice management and career transitions, to tips on managing stress and student loan debt.
• The New York State Bar Association Committee on Lawyers in Transition, formed prior to the recession, now focuses on helping attorneys who have been laid off as a result of the economic downturn. Among other resources, the committee has a Lawyers in Transition blog and a series of webcasts on career strategies and development.
• The Los Angeles County Bar Association has a career site devoted to Career Transition Resources, including a Resource Guide for Unemployed Lawyers.
• The New York City Bar Association has a variety of resources for lawyers looking to start their career or to make a transition.

Some upcoming events:

• September 14 and 16, 2010, New York: The NYC Bar’s Center for CLE, the Committee on Career Advancement and Management, and the Committee on Law Student Perspectives are holding a Boot Camp: Basic Training for Lawyers, a two-day program “to provide recent law graduates and current law students with career planning information particularly relevant in today's economy, as well as practical and substantive insights into the practice of law.” (Note: the program is free to students and alumni of sponsoring law schools).
• September 15, 2010, Massachusetts: The Lawyers in Transition Committee of the Massachusetts Bar Association is sponsoring a program by Stephen Seckler on “Revving Up Your Fall Job Search.“ Seckler is a law firm marketing coach whose services include a new program called SLC Jump Start ^SM — Making the Transition from Associate Who Does the Work to Partner Who Generates the Work.