Lawyers at Work. Clare Cosslett

Transcription

1 Lawyers at Work Clare Cosslett

2 Lawyers at Work Copyright 2012 by Clare Cosslett Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. ISBN ISBN (ebook) Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Th e use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Robert Hutchinson Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Louise Corrigan, Morgan Ertel, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Robert Hutchinson, Michelle Lowman, James Markham, Matthew Moodie, Jeff Olson, Jeffrey Pepper, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Gwenan Spearing, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Coordinating Editor: Rita Fernando Copy Editor: Kim Burton-Weisman Compositor: SPi Global Indexer: SPi Global Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business Media New York, 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY Phone SPRINGER, fax (201) , orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit Apress Media, LLC is a California LLC and the sole member (owner) is Springer Science + Business Media Finance Inc (SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation. For information on translations, please rights@apress.com, or visit Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. ebook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales ebook Licensing web page at Any source code or other supplementary materials referenced by the author in this text is available to readers at For detailed information about how to locate your book s source code, go to

3 To all the happy and unhappy lawyers I have come to know over the years.

4 Contents Foreword vii About the Author ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1. Anne Vladeck, Employment Law Chapter 2. Jim Sanders, Corporate Defense Chapter 3. Jonathan Streeter, Federal Prosecution Chapter 4. Ken Kopelman, Financial Services Chapter 5. Nandan Nelivigi, India Practice Chapter 6. Jacalyn F. Barnett, Family Law Chapter 7. Peri Lynne Johnson, International Law Chapter 8. Kate Romain, Cross-Border M&A Chapter 9. Chris Sprigman, Antitrust/Intellectual Property Chapter 10. Wayne Alexander, Entertainment Chapter 11. Sean Delany, Nonpro t Chapter 12. David Whedbee, Civil Rights Chapter 13. Shane Kelley, Trusts & Estates Chapter 14. Arthur Feldman, Civil Litigation Chapter 15. Adam Nguyen, Corporate/Legal Technology Index v

5 Fore word Lawyers at Work is a wonderful compilation of the eclectic and varied careers available to someone with a law degree. While perhaps most useful for those contemplating going to law school, or in law school, it is a fascinating read for anyone who is at all curious about what lawyers actually do. As a current federal judge who did criminal defense work as a lawyer, this was an eye-opener even for me. It s a real down-in-the-weeds look at what attorneys do every day: a family trust and estates lawyer in Florida who battles prolifi c fraud against the elderly; an entertainment lawyer who works with hippie fi lm makers like George Lucas and helps creative authors bring their writings to fruition in a TV series or a movie; an entrepreneur who left legal practice to found a profi t-for-purpose company that provided underprivileged kids with tutoring, test preparation, admissions advising, and mentoring; a law professor who studies stand-up comedy, the fashion industry, and cuisine in order to argue for more First Amendment freedom against prolifi c copyright laws; an American lawyer working in Paris, negotiating a multi-cross-cultural deal involving a Japanese-owned company headquartered in New Jersey buying a French-owned company in France; a director of a lawyer alliance in New York who in one year provided nearly 700 nonprofi t groups with legal advice from a network of 1,400 volunteer lawyers. Several of these attorneys knew even as children they wanted to be lawyers, while others meandered down accidental paths to law school, including one who admitted to being completely clueless for about ten years out of college before fi nding her way to law school. The author of this foreword sympathizes, having gone from college to working as a secretary, then to graduate journalism school, then to volunteering in civil rights, and then to law school at which point her father began to despair if she would ever have a real job. Some of these attorneys work in high-power regimented corporate offi ces with hundreds of other lawyers while others operate in mom-and-pop outfi ts without a whole lot of rules. One attorney works in a fi rm specializing in police misconduct, wrongful incarceration, First Amendment claims, unlawful discrimination, and emphasizing a close relationship with each individual client a holistic approach with empathy a foremost characteristic. These lawyers also provide invaluable advice to those currently in law school: network with the school s alumni, even while in school. Get advice from them about legal and nonlegal careers. Also, cultivate and maintain friendships with vii

6 viii Foreword your classmates. They become lifelong allies and resources as your career hits the inevitable twists and bumps in the road. Other advice is more philosophical: The biggest diffi culty for students when they actually begin to work as a lawyer is transitioning from doing what they re told, which is how to excel in school, to doing what they want, which is how to excel in life and at a career Chart your own path. Some also provide terrifi c advice on good lawyering in the courtroom: You want to tell a narrative, as opposed to just a bunch of little pieces of information. You want to teach. You want to simplify complicated concepts and make them understandable for the jury. And you want to keep the jury engaged and interested. The same attorney emphasizes establishing your credibility by knowing the evidence well, even to the point of memorizing exhibit numbers, and telling the story in a calm way that is supported by the evidence. All in all, Lawyers at Work is a fascinating read. Among other things, I fi nally learned what a derivative is! Helen G. Berrigan United States District Judge Eastern District of Louisiana

7 About the Author Clare Cosslett is the principal and founder of Cosslett & Company, a New York legal search and placement fi rm. As a former practicing attorney and a legal recruiter with more than twenty years of experience, Clare has met and interviewed hundreds of lawyers. She works with top fi rms and a wide variety of in-house clients, placing lawyers at all seniority levels nationally and internationally. Before opening her own business in 2002, Clare was a senior recruiter with Lucas Group and a vice president and senior recruiter with its New York predecessor, London and Company. Clare practiced law as a corporate attorney in the New York offi ces of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Moses & Singer. She has a JD cum laude from Brooklyn Law School and a BA from Columbia University. ix

8 Acknowledgments Many thanks to the lawyers who participated as interviewees and to friends who made introductions on my behalf. Thanks to my family: my husband for encouraging me; Preston for reminding me how to work hard; Malcolm, without whose expertise, this book simply never would have happened; and Dante for keeping me company. Thanks to Apress for the idea of this book; to Robert Hutchinson for trusting me to write it; to Rita Fernando for her endless patience; and to Kristen Ng for her perfect ear. xi

9 I nt roduc t ion The practice of law is not monolithic. Professional directories for the United States sort one million lawyers and 50,000 law fi rms into some 65 core practice areas. In Lawyers at Work, I interview fi fteen lawyers in fi fteen practice areas selected to be representative of the lawyering spectrum: employment law, corporate defense, criminal prosecution, fi nancial services, international project fi nance, family law, international law, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, intellectual property, entertainment, nonprofi t, civil rights, trusts and estates, and civil litigation. My interviewing method has been to elicit from this ensemble of lawyers their own stories in their own words. My aim has been to get at what makes them tick: why they went into law, how they matched their personal traits and values to their chosen practice areas, how they built their careers and developed their styles of practice, how they manage the tensions between their professional and private lives, and what drives them to lawyer on. The lawyers I interviewed gave me a variety of reasons for becoming lawyers. About half of them became lawyers because of a strong family legacy in the law. One became a lawyer in spite of her family. Some found inspiring role models and others thought they would enjoy the intellectual rigor of the law. Some knew exactly what they wanted to do even before entering law school. Others stumbled into their area of expertise after leaving law school. Some of the lawyers interviewed in this book are true believers whose practices refl ect personal ethical imperatives to redress social inequities. Sean Delany, for example, has spent his career in the area of public service representing the indigent. David Whedbee has always reached out to protect the civil rights of the least affl uent. Anne Vladeck never doubted that, as an employment lawyer in her family fi rm, she would represent unions and employee plaintiffs against big employers, just as her parents had done. You can t imagine a true-believer representing the other side without a crisis of conscience. By contrast, a shades-of-grey lawyer such as Jon Streeter is equally at ease prosecuting or defending the same classes of litigants. And Jim Sanders, tongue fi rmly in cheek, avers that moving from a public defender role to a corporate defense role can still be considered indigent defense if your client doesn t pay. xiii

10 xiv Introduction Some lawyers, such as Arthur Feldman, enjoy taking on a broad array of cases. Many others like Ken Kopelman, Jacalyn Barnett, Wayne Alexander, and Shane Kelley opt not to stray from their fi eld of expertise. Some have taken their practice onto an international stage, like Nandan Nelivigi, Peri Lynne Johnson, and Kate Romain. Others have acquired their legal expertise in practice and then applied it to academia and authorship, like Chris Sprigman, or to entrepreneurship, like Adam Nguyen. In interviewing these fi fteen lawyers, I discovered that, despite the diversity of their practices, priorities, and personalities, they all shared one trait in common. Each had taken an aggressively proactive approach to his or her career. When they saw opportunities, either professional or personal, they went for them. They took risks and followed their instincts in selecting paths that were often neither straight nor continuous. Falling in love or raising a family can redefi ne a professional path without derailing it. In twenty years of legal recruiting, I ve seen the market seesaw back and forth between jobs looking for good lawyers in times of economic growth, and lawyers looking for good jobs in times of contraction. It is no secret that since 2008 law schools have been producing more lawyers than there are jobs and that the median salary for junior attorneys has dropped. For those considering law school, it is always risky to predict what the job market will look like years down the road. What prospective lawyers do know is that a shrinking market swells the ranks of unemployed and underemployed lawyers, against whom they ll fi nd themselves competing after law school. In the face of a weak and highly competitive market, it is imperative for prospective lawyers to chart a realistic career plan before investing in a JD. Law is no longer a fallback profession for dilettantes and temporizers. If you understand what it means to practice law and you still want to do it do it. If not, do something else. Being a lawyer is hard work for those who love it. It is not a life for those who do not. The practitioners in this book all love their work, and all of them have weathered economic storms and market turmoil. Collectively, they prove two complementary propositions. First, lawyers can have exciting, remunerative, and personally satisfying careers. Second, before taking a shot at the fi rst proposition, a prospective lawyer had better research deeply the practice areas that interest her, take brutally honest stock of her own temperament and abilities, and satisfy herself that the two are in perfect alignment. So, if your passion is law, take what lessons of the head and heart you can from the words of these fi fteen legal practitioners who honor the legal profession and love what they do.