Choosing the right career path

For those of you in your last semester at Law School, the world of law is before you – but do you know what you want to do? Galia BarHava-Monteith and Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes look at the options for those seeking a career in the wheeler-dealer world of commercial law.

Any day now, freshly minted Law School students will graduate and embark on new careers. If you’re among them, then we hope your plans all work out. If you decide to re-evaluate your career in a couple of years, however, rest assured there will be a good range of options available.

Questions, questions, questions
The legal path that will suit you best depends on what you want from your career and, indeed, life. Start by asking yourself:
• Do I want to be a specialist or a generalist legal practitioner?
• Will I always want to stay in law or can I see myself moving into general management?
• Will I work full-time or am I eventually likely to reduce my hours, perhaps for a family or further study?
• Am I prepared to sacrifice my lifestyle in the short run to put in the long hours needed to get ahead in my legal career?

These questions might seem a bit premature to you, but they’re worth bearing in mind. After a year or two of work experience, the answers will likely become clearer.

The ‘Big Six’ law firm
If you’ve landed a job in one of these firms, then congratulations; the experience you’ll gain will be excellent for your career. Even if you don’t see yourself staying forever, there’s value in pursuing it for a few years to gain experience and build relationships.
 A career in a Big Six law firm has distinct advantages:
• At the senior levels, it’s very well paid.
• It will set you up well to work in other law firms or corporates both locally and overseas.
• If you find that you really enjoy one particular area of law, then a big firm is a great place to build that expertise.
• You’ll be able to learn from some of the country’s best legal minds.
David Matthews, general counsel, Fonterra Co-operative Group – and an Australian – reinforces this last point. “Large law firms in New Zealand offer some of the world’s best work opportunities for graduates. They work alongside the best lawyers, ones who have international experience from the top law firms in the most influential markets. The training they offer is excellent both formally and informally.” Jennifer Mills, partner, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, adds, “A Big Six law firm offers graduates the chance to work on the most challenging legal work available. At our firm, graduates have the opportunity to work as part of a truly global business.”
 There are some disadvantages to consider, however, even for young graduates:
• You’ll generally have to work in one area only. Generalists could feel restricted.
• There will be many times when you’ll have to put in prodigious hours. If you’re not prepared to keep that up, these firms won’t be a good fit.
• The environment can be quite competitive and at times unsupportive. If you’re inclined to bouts of self-doubt, you might struggle.

The boutique law firm
There are a growing number of top-notch ‘boutique’ legal firms, especially in Auckland. Most of them specialise in specific areas like property, M&A, etcetera.

Their advantages include:
• Typically, less formality and a more open office culture than the Big Six.
• A willingness – as far as we can tell – to be flexible, for example, around the needs of working women with children.
• They pay well.

Disadvantages are that:
• Some boutiques don’t take on new graduates; work experience from a Big Six firm would be a distinct advantage here.
• Boutiques are unlikely to suit a generalist.
• Partnership prospects may be more limited, reflecting their smaller size. In the Big Six, by contrast, you’ll have history to help you gauge your partnership chances.

The general practice law firm
If you know that becoming a specialist is not for you, then consider general practice.
 Apart from diverse work, it offers other advantages:
• General practices are everywhere! You can work in your suburb or a smaller rural area, rather than being constrained to big city life.
• Some general practices are very accommodating of work-life balance and flexibility.
• Do your homework and compare offers as you might find that some practices pay very well.

 The disadvantages are:
• You’re unlikely to undertake the ‘sexy’ work the Big Six or the boutiques do.
• You won’t have the resources the city firms do in terms of legal libraries etcetera.
• You could find working life in a small suburban firm lonely.
• It carries less prestige than the earlier options.
• Once in general practice, you’re less likely to be able to move into the two career options that follow.

In-house legal counsel
Many corporates and government departments have legal teams ‘in-house’ to look after their legal affairs, although they can supplement this with some use of outside law firms.

In-house counsel is half way along the specialist-generalist continuum. Your legal work will often be varied, and there’s a chance to learn about the business side of your company or department.

One key advantage of pursuing this path is that the legal counsel is often part of the company’s leadership team. Ron Pol, director of professional services company Team Factors, says, “Becoming the head lawyer of a large company, bank, or government organisation is nowadays seen as the pinnacle of many lawyers’ careers, akin to partnership in one of the big firms.”

Other advantages include:
• Greater work-life balance.
• Not needing to worry about billable hours pressure.
• A chance to learn skills beyond law, such as management and leadership.
• The possibility of moving out of law and into general management. A case in point is Air New Zealand’s Group General Manager of People who was an in-house lawyer earlier in her career.

Matthews sounds a word of caution about timing. “My recommendation is not to think about in-house legal before you’ve had at least five years of private practice experience. I believe it is very important to first gain high-level, broad experience from the top specialists the big firms have to offer, before becoming a generalist.”

Further disadvantages to consider are:
• As this is a sideways move from a ‘pure’ legal career, it could prove harder to return to private practice some day. That said, recently, there seems to be an increasing amount of two-way traffic between in-house and law firms.
• The general challenges of working in any corporate or large public department, such as learning to negotiate organisational politics.

Self-employment/contracting
One day, you may want to move off the full-time career path, whether for family, study, or other reasons. You can actually plan for becoming a contractor or self-employed from where you are now. In our view, the key is to specialise. It makes you more saleable and makes it easier for you to keep up with developments in your area when you no longer have access to a law firm’s libraries and fellow experts.

As a specialist in your chosen field, you can continue to find interesting work yet structure it to fit your life. There appear to be some legal areas where New Zealand lacks good specialist lawyers. If you can identify those areas early on, this might help guide you, though your interests and inclinations have a large role to play. Once you’ve established yourself, your good clients are unlikely to mind much whether you’re working from a firm or as a sole practitioner.

There are a number of women lawyers who have worked in the big firms, done the hours, built client relationships, and become well known in their chosen expertise. Later, they have successfully opted for self-employment, usually after having children. There are pitfalls and pluses to the contracting and self-employment approaches, of course, which we have written about on our Professionelle website (http://www.professionelle.co.nz/).
 
A last word of advice
“Ensure you get the best law degree you possibly can and seriously consider doing a Masters of Law. This will demonstrate you’ve got the grades, and when you’re starting out, that’s all employers have to judge you on,” says Matthews.

For further reading, you may enjoy:
• An excellent article on legal career options from the University of Canterbury (http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/careers/subjectoptions/law.shtml).
• Information about in-house counsel provided by the Corporate Lawyers Association (http://www.clanz.org/).
• A personal account from an American legal site about the decision to move out of legal practice into legal recruitment (http://www.infirmation.com/articles/one-article.tcl?article_id=4083).
• Information on base salary levels both in private practice and in-house in New Zealand, compiled by Team Factors (http://www.teamfactors.com/connect.htm). At time of writing, the salary calculator is password restricted. Email Professionelle@teamfactors.com to be provided with a password courtesy of Team Factors.

Galia BarHava-Monteith and Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes are the directors of www.professionelle.co.nz.

3 August 2007