Junior lawyers hit the job market for all kinds of reasons: to find a role that better matches their interests, to improve their work-life balance or to practise under a committed mentor. For the most part, this process plays out as you’d imagine. It involves identifying opportunities, optimizing resumés for each position, writing intriguing cover letters and, finally, nailing every round of interviews. The qualities that firms look for in associates will also come as little surprise: legal knowledge commensurate with the candidate’s year of call, plus a familiar array of soft skills and character traits, such as strong communication and professional integrity.
You might assume, at this point, that the key to landing a junior role is a well-crafted application that artfully lays out your credentials. But it’s not that simple. Even if you were an all-star articling student or the best rookie associate in your firm’s history, you’re still quite inexperienced and virtually unknown. Your talent and potential won’t be immediately obvious to the wider profession. And yet it is possible for a relatively new lawyer to stand out on the job market. Here’s how.
Step into the spotlight
Once you decide to make a move, write down a list of the law firms that most interest you. Then try to connect with an influential person at each operation. The ideal target is the director of talent or, at firms too small to have one, a partner in the practice group that you hope to join. Leverage your network for someone who can make an introduction—a mentor, a former professor, your supportive articling principal. Choose the ally who can offer the strongest endorsement.
When you’re in touch with the target, explain your attraction to the firm or practice area, then describe the type of opportunity you seek. Ask if you can submit a cover letter and resumé for the firm’s files. If your contact is particularly responsive, you could propose a short get-to-know-you call to solidify the connection.
If you can’t secure an introduction, don’t sweat it: cold calls are an acceptable backup option. But you should soften your initial approach. In an email or voicemail, briefly state your interest in future opportunities and ask how to be considered for them. Then follow through appropriately. If you’re told to submit a cover letter and resumé, do it promptly, tailoring the documents to the situation as you would with a formal application. You don’t want your outreach to have a whiff of spam.
Once you’re on the radar of directors of talent and practice-group leaders, you have to confront another dilemma: how to follow up if they go quiet. Resist the impulse to ask each person for a monthly update. Instead, wait until there’s been a material change in your qualifications or experience. Then send along an updated CV, with a note that mentions what you’ve revised. But limit those emails to once every six months. If you pester your contacts too often, they’ll eventually tune you out.
The discoverability factor
When law firms have a job opening, they often advertise it online. Another tactic is to hire a recruiter to place a capable lawyer in the role. To identify promising candidates, headhunters comb through both law-firm directories and LinkedIn. The lesson is clear: you need a first-rate profile on each platform.
Let’s begin with your law-firm bio. Recruiters will pay particularly close attention to your representative matters. As you build up a track record of legal work, keep that section current. (Email your updated text directly to the co-worker who maintains the firm’s website.) Importantly, you don’t have to inflate your accomplishments. Plenty of two- and three-year calls have no matters listed at all, so even a few bullet points can set you apart from the competition. If you haven’t already, proudly tell the internet about the minor role you played on that tricky lawsuit.
On LinkedIn, the primary goal is to show up in search results when a recruiter is on the hunt for a certain kind of lawyer. Your job title should include both your position and practice area. You might write: “Associate, Competition and Antitrust.” In the About section, draft a keyword-rich summary of your role and a brief rundown of any notable achievements. For instance: “I’m an associate in the competition group at YYZ LLP, where I work on antitrust litigation and corporate compliance. For the past two years, I’ve volunteered as a guest lecturer on competition law at Osgoode Hall.” Aim for clear and succinct prose.
If you receive a cold call from a headhunter, make the most of it. Even if you’re not ready to apply to the position on offer, promote yourself for future openings. Recruiters are typically happy to discuss your qualifications and keep you in mind if a more suitable role comes up later. (For further advice on this topic, Precedent has a practical guide on how to land a job through a legal recruiter.)
You don’t need to be an influencer
Among many career coaches, conventional wisdom holds that young professionals should use social media to build their brands and help them secure their jobs of choice. If you have the ability to produce a steady stream of insightful posts about the law, then lucky you—that’s a rare gift. But it’s not as career-boosting as you’d think, especially at the junior level. It’s your proven skills and past achievements that truly matter.
To be honest, your social-media activity is more likely to cost you a job than get you one. Law firms and headhunters will undoubtedly review your accounts for opinions that could pose a reputational risk or strain your relationship with would-be clients and colleagues.
Proving your legal chops
No one expects a junior associate to have a portable book of business, a history of rainmaking or a preternatural flair for mentorship. For the most part, law firms hire early-career talent to fill an urgent need, such as the sudden departure of a valued team member. You’ll need to demonstrate, therefore, that you can contribute on day one.
Let’s say you apply for an M&A role. In the interview, it’s a safe bet that the hiring team will ask you to describe your involvement in a corporate transaction. Answer with copious detail. Recount how you contributed to the due diligence process, worked on the submission to the Competition Bureau and helped draft the share purchase agreement. Mention anything abnormal about the file—perhaps it was a cross-border acquisition—and explain how you navigated the added complexity. Such a precise account will inspire confidence in your candidacy. But don’t stretch the truth. If you get the job, you’ll soon be found out.
The culture of the firm
For any job opportunity, the savviest applicants tend to highlight how they align with the firm’s core values. But how can you uncover the truth about an organization’s internal culture? It’s not so easy. Most corporate websites feature vague mission statements that echo aspirations more than they reflect reality. Innovative, inclusive, collegial, supportive—you’ve heard them all.
To cut through the clutter, it’s useful to speak with current or former lawyers at the firm. Tap your network to find people who can share their candid thoughts on informal calls. You might ask: “What sort of behaviour gets rewarded?” Followed by: “Who is promoted fastest?” And even: “What sort of behaviour gets punished?” Depending on the answers, you may learn that the firm values its highest-billing lawyers above anyone else. Or that it favours associates who can work independently, without much oversight. Or that the senior partners have a deeply held social-justice ethos that influences the firm’s caseload. As long as you’re comfortable with what you discover, your next step is to position yourself—in your cover letter and the interview process—as someone who can thrive in that environment.
This advice is rooted in data. One influential study of hiring practices in elite professional services firms observed that employers “sought candidates who were not only competent but also culturally similar.” In fact, concerns about “shared culture” routinely “outweighed concerns about absolute productivity.” To be sure, that isn’t exactly meritocratic. But it’s a real phenomenon that’s worth your attention.
How helpful is artificial intelligence?
Now that AI is capable of acing law school exams, unleashing ChatGPT in your job search might seem like a no-brainer. Still, it’s a mistake to let a chatbot craft your resumés and cover letters from scratch. Experts still recommend limiting AI use to brainstorming ideas or suggesting improvements to a draft that you’ve already written. This ensures accuracy and authenticity. After all, the computer isn’t the candidate. You are. For your own sake, and that of your fellow associates, you want it to stay that way for many years to come.
Just as you’re finding your feet in the legal profession, your first lateral move may feel more like a daring leap. But for all the unknowns that come with switching firms as a junior, landing the right role at the right time can set you up for success decades from now. Consider the effort a small investment in the career—and life—you hope to build.
Ian Portsmouth is an award-winning writer and editor based in Toronto. He specializes in business and personal finance.
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Illustration by Ty Dale.