5 Lessons from Top Silicon Valley Legal Leaders on Developing Your Career

On February 11, 2024

I recently attended a fascinating panel of legal leaders in Silicon Valley discussing lessons learned while navigating to the top. Here are five tips straight from the room where it happened: Develop relationships. If you build trust with business partners, they will back you when you need it. (And it’s best to build the relationship […]

Career Management, Career Tips

5 Top Career Tips Out of Leading Convention (NAPABA’s 35th)

On November 12, 2023

I just returned from the 35th annual convention of National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), where top legal leaders (and recruiters!) convene. Here are the 5 career tips I heard over and over again: Gain substantive legal expertise. This requirement is “table stakes” (this phrase was used repeatedly!). Gain soft skills. You must also […]

Career Management, Career Tips, New Job

Starting a New Job? 10 Tips for Success

On September 10, 2023

New hires often start in September. Here are the top 10 things to do at a new job. You only have one shot to make a great impression, and how you are perceived will affect you for years to come. Go in person. You can make more of an impact than over Zoom and build […]

Career Management, Career Tips, Offer

5 Career Lessons, Crowd-Sourced by WSJ

On September 3, 2023

WSJ listed some great crowd-sourced tips learned from big career mistakes. These 5 lessons especially apply to lawyers. Build soft skills, which are as important as hard skills. From day one, lawyers need to not only learn the substance of the law, but also how to work with others and communicate effectively. As counsel get […]

Career Management, Change, Departure, LinkedIn

5 Positive Things You Can Do When Things Are Going to Hell in a Handbasket

On March 12, 2023

Tough times now for lawyers, who are overworked or getting laid off. What are some things you can do to make the best of a bad situation? Post-layoff, how do you interact with folks? Join an employee alumni group (or start one). Stay in touch with coworkers still there. They likely will want to help you […]

Career Management, Career Tips, Title

Top 10 Legal Job Search Fails

On February 19, 2023

I see these ten things all the time that lawyers should not be doing. I call these out because they are within your control to avoid. 1. Your resume lists what you do in the order you do it rather than in the order the prospective employer cares about. Do not make the interviewer work to […]

Career Management, Career Tips

2 Super Easy New Year’s Resolutions for Lawyers

On January 1, 2023

Happy New Year! 2022 was challenging, so let’s make extra-attainable New Year’s resolutions for 2023. I reviewed 20 crowd-sourced and hand-picked by the New York Times. These two apply to your career and are excellent: “Never take criticism from someone you wouldn’t go to for advice.” “Learn to say, ‘I need time to think about this.’ […]

Career Management, Job Search

Non-Legal Jobs for Lawyers

On December 4, 2022

Now that tech layoffs have hit, you may be thinking of other careers. Here are other jobs I’ve seen lawyers successfully shift to: compliance privacy/data HR legal operations business operations founder (e.g., of tech or services company) consulting crisis management finance banking/trading sales/channel/business development venture capital real estate government recruiter coach writer Lawyers who want […]

Career Management, Career Tips, Mentors, Networking

10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Legal Career

On October 29, 2022

I am the child of immigrants and the first in my family to go to law school in the US. Not knowing any lawyers, I navigated my career through trial and error. Here are 10 things I wish I knew when I started: Big law is not the only way to go. Yes, big law […]

Career Management, Career Tips, Change, Departure, Market, Timing

5 Non-Obvious Signs of Impending Layoff

On September 25, 2022

As the risk of recession increases, here’s a good article on how to tell if your company is about to do layoffs (beyond if you see a steep drop in revenue or a threat emerge to the business model). I survived multiple rounds of layoffs when I was in-house, and these ring true to me: […]

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