A while back, the question of economic recovery was floating around. Were we recovering as a nation? Would there be jobs soon?
It’s hard to say whether or not employment picked up. Many of the unemployed people I knew are still unemployed. Some have seen their hours cut. And those working as contractors are still not full-time employees yet.
But I’ll save the rants on the economy to other posts in my blog from writers who have far more to say on this subject. On my end, I’m going to talk about keeping yourself relevant in a tough job market.
Many industries suffered greatly during the last few years. And I imagine that anyone in the legal industry knows this fact to be true. The legal job market was ravaged, with layoffs and hiring freezes.
I know several associates who were laid off from top firms. Some hung up their own shingles. Others moved to a different city or even country. Some chose alternative careers to law. And some took to contracting.
Or, purported mistakes. I don’t necessarily believe that these are mistakes or that there is necessarily one particular way to act on the job, but it seems as though many authors are in consensus that certain behaviors are taboo.
I’ve been reading quite a bit lately. On my way back from New York City, I picked up an appropriate book, written by a well known New Yorker: If you Have to Cry, Go Outside by Kelly Coutrone.
I recently started reading a few books on business etiquette. I guess you could say that I had a revelation when I hit the big 3-0. Or perhaps it was after the 4th of July barbecue at a fellow lawyer’s house, where another lawyer colleague and her husband staged a mini intervention.
“Your look screams ‘college girl’ and you need to update it if you want people to see you as a professional.”
Not that my look was unconventional, but the truth is that some would argue that there exists a dress code in the legal profession, or in any conservative profession for that matter. And my excessively long hair, with the bleached blond streaks was certainly not part of that dress code.
Apparently, women don’t have much of an option. Especially not women lawyers.
Now, bear in mind that I’m not making this statement as a product of my own conjecture. I’m reading this from a Newsweek article about the disparity in pay for female lawyers.
Says Joan Williams, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law: “You must engage in self promotion but you’re penalized for doing so if you’re a woman.”
The Newsweek article speaks of the gender bias faced by women in the legal profession. Those who know me are fully aware of my thoughts on this topic. I’ve long been the Chicken Little, shouting “the sky is falling.” Well, perhaps it was not the sky that was falling but rather, the glass ceiling coming down lower.
I’ve addressed this topic on my blog before, but given the high interest shown by readers, I thought I would bring it up again. One huge problem, according to the ABA Journal, is that lawyers remain closeted about the depression they suffer. Perhaps its due to the stigma that attaches to mental disorder. Or perhaps its denial. Whatever the reason, many lawyers chose to battle it out alone. And as a result, resort to substanc abuse.
The California Bar Journal recently published an article, written by Diane Curtis, on the correlation between the practice of law and depression. A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University found that lawyers suffer the highest rate of depression- 19% of lawyers suffer from depression, where only 3-9% of the general population suffers from depression.
The article mentions the “telltale signs” of depression among attorneys, as noted by a member of the Lawyer Assistance Program of the California State Bar. These signs are generally fatigue, low energy and a sense of being overwhelmed. He interestingly enough calls this depression a “creeping paralysis”.
Despite the economy picking up, jobless rates are still in the double digits, according to unemployment statistics. For many, that means the fear of losing an employer-sponsored or employer-provided health care benefits plan.
Despite the fact that the universal health-care legislation passed the legislature, many of the provisions won’t be implemented for a while. As a result, people who lost their jobs may be left in the dark for a while, unaware of their options for health-care.
Do you know how to market on the Web? In the Online Marketing 101 series, we’ll discuss how to market on the Web and which online marketing campaigns can make your online marketing effective.
If you want to successfully market your business, you have to learn the basics of online marketing. The marketing environment has changed globally and as a result, you’re going to be left in the dark if you don’t understand the basics of Internet marketing. Before we go further in the Online Marketing 101 series, a brief introduction is in order. I am a lawyer by profession and I own my own tax law practice. By day, I work as a legal journalist at the world’s largest online lawyer marketing company, which incidentally is also owned by one of the world’s largest news companies, Thompson Reuters.
Law has been called a lonely profession, despite the fact that it’s usually such a people-driven profession. Despite the success that can come along with it, it is also a profession with the highest depression rate.
Now, imagine being a solo attorney. I am a solo practitioner. I work as a professional legal journalist at Thomson Reuters by day and as a tax attorney after hours. In the days where I was devoting 100% of my time to being a solo practitioner, I can admit that it got very lonely at times. At least during the first year.
