By: Elizabeth Olson, New York Times

His boss was fired, and in effect, so was he. Now Matthew S. Axelrod is moving on. The former top deputy to the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, who was dismissed by President Trump in January after refusing to enforce his executive order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Mr. Axelrod is joining a major global law firm, Linklaters. He will be a partner in that 179-year-old British firm’s Washington office, in its white-collar defense practice.

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By: Eilene Spear, The National Law Review

A law firm is only as good as it’s lawyers.  Making sure a firm has the right lawyers for the job is an important part of being Managing Partner, and the road to staffing and retention can be a tricky one.   Recruitment, retention, and dealing with problematic partners are all important and sometimes challenging issues for Managing Partners to address. In the fifth installment of the NLR series on the Managing Partner Forum's Re-Envisioning the Law Firm study, we examine the challenges MP's face with recruitment, retention, and the awkward reality of problematic partners.

Recruitment and Retention: Different Concerns

Recruitment is the process of inviting the right people to join the firm, and the goal is to find people who share the firm’s values and are like-minded.  According to Re-Envisioning, “Get Recruiting wrong, and you don’t get the people you need, in fact, you’ll probably get the people you don’t need.”  So throughout the recruiting process--identifying the firm’s needs, finding candidates, application and resume reviews, interviewing, and the decision to hire--it’s important to consider each step, and why things are done the way they are done.  Simply adhering to the status quo is not the best use of resources.

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By:  Terry Carter, ABA Journal

Law schools are adapting to changing times with courses and training that go beyond the goal of teaching students to practice law. They are also ensuring that students gain an understanding of diversity and inclusiveness as well as be able to demonstrate technological competence, according to two Florida law school deans who have been at the cutting edge of these developments.

Law schools are changing in remarkable ways, and some of them might not be aware of how or how much this is happening, said Joann Grages Burnett, associate director of career development at the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida. Burnett made her remarks on Friday at a panel discussion titled “Changing Tides: How Law Schools are Riding the Wave of an Evolving Legal Market,” as part of the ABA Midyear Meeting in Miami.

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By: Leslie A. Gordon, ABA Journal

Soon after graduating from New York University School of Law and joining the corporate practice of a white-shoe Manhattan law firm, Will Meyerhofer gained 45 pounds, was sleep-deprived and was frequently sick. "I was a nervous wreck. I was shattered," says Meyerhofer, who'd also graduated from Harvard". The official number is that something like a gazillion lawyers are stressed out, and that amounts to a bajillion percent of the profession," observes Meyerhofer, who became a licensed clinical social worker after benefiting tremendously from therapy he himself underwent to "get a grasp on what happened to me in BigLaw." 

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Each spring WALRAA provides participating members a weekly directory with summer housing opportunities in the Washington DC metro area. The directory is a great way to help out-of-town summer associates find convenient and affordable housing. Since summer is just around the corner, we are collecting information about available apartments, condos or houses.

All submissions must be made through the 2017 Summer Housing Submission page, in order to be included in the directory.

Beginning the week of March 5th, the weekly housing directory will be emailed to all participating law firms and law schools. You may also access the directory to obtain the most up to date listings available via the Resource Center.

Your participation is much appreciated! Please feel free to forward this information to anyone who may be interested in renting.

WALRAA_Summer_Housing_Flyer.JPG

Is intrapreneurship the key to success and happiness? Research shows that entrepreneurs are happier people so what can we learn from them in the legal industry. This Spring at the NALP Education Conference we will be discussing this topic and presenting data from the corporate world. In an effort to present the current state of intrapreneurship in the legal industry we are asking people to complete the below anonymous survey. The survey is brief and should take no more than five minutes to complete, but will provide us with valuable insights to share during our program. We encourage you to share this survey throughout your network so that we can ensure a statistically significant data pool.

All information is anonymous unless you choose to be contacted for additional interviews. If you would like any additional information please contact Rachael Bosch or Mikaela McRae.

NALP Program Survey

Tammy Patterson, President and CEO of the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, shared highlights of the Foundation's recent research, including associate hiring and attrition, evaluations, lawyer mobility (based on the Foundation and the American Bar Foundation's seminal project, After the JD), and lawyer satisfaction (based on the the Foundation's Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction Studies and After the JD). Tammy also spoke about the Foundation's current and upcoming projects.

Tammy Patterson's presentation can be found in the Resource Center.

By: Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters' Peer Monitor.

The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute are pleased to present this 2017 Report setting out our views of the dominant trends impacting the legal market in 2016 and key issues likely to influence the market in 2017 and beyond.

2017 Report on the State of the Legal Market

By Elizabeth Olson, The New York Times

January 9, 2017

America’s law firms, even the most prominent, are mired in an era of noticeably modest growth and volatility in the industry, and 2017 promises to be no better.

Fierce competition is prompting firms to take unusual steps to bolster their profiles. Top firms are hiring groups of lawyers to expand specific practice areas, changing pay practices, jettisoning or demoting some partners and staff members and seeking ways to distinguish their brands to set them apart from competitors.

With Competition Fierce, Even Elite Law Firms Resort to the Unusual

By Kevin Granville, The New York Times

January 1, 2017

Many people spend most of their waking hours at work or thinking about work. In the dim chill of a Monday morning in January, the prospect of another year at a job that fails to satisfy can be daunting, if not downright depressing.

The Best Time to Retune Your Career? It’s Probably Right Now