Tips for Lawyers Podcast

It’s one of the most common discussion points that comes up – are there simply too many law students, and not enough jobs?

But in reality, that’s not the main issue.  Most people don’t care how saturated the profession is as some fascinating intellectual discussion.  Rather, they care about one question: how can they get a job?

In this podcast I discuss:

how many law students are there in Aus?

what can you do to distinguish yourself from the pack?

how to give yourself a warm introduction and maximise your job prospects in the legal profession.

Happy Lawyering!

Transcript – Are there Too Many Law Students, and Not Enough Lawyers?

Welcome to the Tips for Lawyers Podcast. This is Chris Hargreaves from tipsforlawyers.com, and this is the podcast Episode 56, I think. I haven’t done a podcast in a while, so if you’ve been hanging out for a new one, welcome to this one. I’ve been in a lot of other activities around the site and around the place recently, so I haven’t had too much of a chance to sit down and actually do some more recording. We left off in our real lawyers episode, and I might continue on that in the future, but for the moment, in this particular episode, I just wanted to have a quick chat about the job market and this perception of the job glut. I was speaking recently at a particular function, and there were a number of unemployed, soon to graduate law students there, and they were all, fairly understandably, concerned about their prospects of securing a job in this particular market.

What I wanted to highlight is that although the glut of law students does exist, and we’re looking at numbers in Australia, at least, of around 14,000 law students graduating in a given year and around 66 to 70,000 lawyers across the country, so if you have a look at those percentages, and bearing in mind that you’ll be a lawyer for maybe anywhere between 20 to 40 years, and if that number is at about the 70,000 mark, and there might be around 14,000 law students, then you’ve got a pretty decent percentage potentially being added to the profession every year. Now, within that, of course, not all of those particular law students will go on to do law. Last I saw any sort of numbers, it was about 11% who don’t actually want to go into law.

I expect the numbers who don’t go into law despite originally wanting to are a little bit higher than that, but at the end of the day, what we have is a situation where there are a lot of law students, and not necessarily that many positions. This is rightly worrying to a lot of people who want to find jobs, but I think there’s a lot of negative rhetoric around there, and in particular where you’ve applied for clerkships, and you’ve not been accepted into a clerkship for one of the bigger firms, then you really don’t quite know what to do next. It would be easier to go, “Well, I’m just not going to get a job. What am I going to do? Do I have to look on SEEK every day? Do I have to go to the Job Network? Careers days? What am I supposed to do to actually secure a job?”

What I really wanted to say today, and it’s not going to take that long, is, firstly, pick yourself up out of the dirt and dust yourself off, because the fact that a couple of firms have not gotten to your résumé or decided, for whatever reason, that you are not a good fit for them, is not a personal affront on you. It is not a judgment that you are not going to be good enough to be a lawyer, and it is not, in the overall scheme of things, an indication that you are unemployable. I want to put this into perspective for you. In Queensland, for example, some of the biggest firms, maybe 25 or so of them, actually participate in a process where you all agree to advertise and select graduate positions at the same time. Within the context of that, obviously, a lot, if not all, of the law students apply for those

Real lawyers communicate.  There’s no getting around it, you just have to be great.

But it’s more than just speaking, writing, and getting your own opinions out there.

Communication isn’t one way – it’s two-way.

In reality you are a translator – you take information, consume it, and then put it out there for others to consume in a new, usable format.

So how can you do that effectively?  Find out in this podcast.

Happy Lawyering!

 Real lawyers communicate.  There’s no getting around it, you just have to be great.

But it’s more than just speaking, writing, and getting your own opinions out there.

Communication isn’t one way – it’s two-way.

In reality you are a translator – you take information, consume it, and then put it out there for others to consume in a new, usable format.

So how can you do that effectively?  Find out in this podcast.

Happy Lawyering!

 

Some of the most obnoxious kinds of lawyers I know are those who simply refuse to acknowledge certain truths about themselves.

But, far beyond just being annoying to others, a lack of self-awareness can be genuinely damaging to your legal career, your personal growth, and your ability to command a team of people.

It impacts on your decision making, it leads to mistakes, it causes bad decisions, it affects your ability to delegate, and ultimately it will stifle your leadership abilities.

So let’s take a look at self-awareness, have a moment of introspection, and really know ourselves, our strengths, and our weaknesses.

Then we’ll be able to really take control of things in our careers.

Happy Lawyering!Some of the most obnoxious kinds of lawyers I know are those who simply refuse to acknowledge certain truths about themselves.

But, far beyond just being annoying to others, a lack of self-awareness can be genuinely damaging to your legal career, your personal growth, and your ability to command a team of people.

It impacts on your decision making, it leads to mistakes, it causes bad decisions, it affects your ability to delegate, and ultimately it will stifle your leadership abilities.

So let’s take a look at self-awareness, have a moment of introspection, and really know ourselves, our strengths, and our weaknesses.

Then we’ll be able to really take control of things in our careers.

Happy Lawyering!

It would be easy to suggest that lawyers have to be perfect in everything they do.  After all, being perfect normally avoids you getting sued for negligence.

But life is rarely as simplistic as that, and for many lawyers they are hamstrung in their endeavours by a pathological need to tinker with everything until it’s been analysed to within an inch of its life.

There is a better way.  You don’t have to diminish the quality of your product, but you need to be prepared to say “enough is enough”.

In this podcast I analyse the issues with perfectionism and how you can maintain a high quality product without becoming obsessive.

Happy Lawyering!

 It would be easy to suggest that lawyers have to be perfect in everything they do.  After all, being perfect normally avoids you getting sued for negligence.

But life is rarely as simplistic as that, and for many lawyers they are hamstrung in their endeavours by a pathological need to tinker with everything until it’s been analysed to within an inch of its life.

There is a better way.  You don’t have to diminish the quality of your product, but you need to be prepared to say “enough is enough”.

In this podcast I analyse the issues with perfectionism and how you can maintain a high quality product without becoming obsessive.

Happy Lawyering!

 

In this first podcast of my new series “Real Lawyers” I take a look at integrity.

It is number 1 on the list for a variety of reasons, but at its core it is because everything else flows from a sense of integrity.

But what does integrity look like?

Does it look like Hilary Clinton claiming she “doesn’t think she has ever lied”?

Does it look like an article that was written by a clerk but gets sent out under your name?

What about partners who take credit for your work before clients?  Is that OK?

Let’s take a look at some of the more nuanced examples of where integrity is going to crop up in practice, and just how easy it is to start down the slippery slope.

Happy Lawyering!In this first podcast of my new series “Real Lawyers” I take a look at integrity.

It is number 1 on the list for a variety of reasons, but at its core it is because everything else flows from a sense of integrity.

But what does integrity look like?

Does it look like Hilary Clinton claiming she “doesn’t think she has ever lied”?

Does it look like an article that was written by a clerk but gets sent out under your name?

What about partners who take credit for your work before clients?  Is that OK?

Let’s take a look at some of the more nuanced examples of where integrity is going to crop up in practice, and just how easy it is to start down the slippery slope.

Happy Lawyering!

It comes up quite a lot.  Should young lawyers go beyond their Bachelor of Laws and expand into the heady world of a masters degree?

Of course, there are (as always) a lot of factors to weigh up.

So let’s take a look at this important question, before you go spending a bunch of time and money that might be best spent elsewhere.

Related Resources for your Masters Degree

Is University Failing Us

Things you have to unlearn from law school

From Assignment to Advice – Transition from uni to Practice

Happy Lawyering!

Transcript – Should Lawyers do a Masters Degree?

Welcome to the Tips For Lawyers Podcast Episode 52. My name is Chris Hargreaves. I’m from TipsForLawyers.com and I hope you are having a fantabulous day. Last episode in 51 I had a talk about the concept of the hope method, whether it be hope training or hope progression. Today I wanted to drill down a little bit on one subsection of that which is the doing of a master’s degree. Now, I know in some jurisdictions, lawyer’s going to be a post graduate degree. That is not the case in all jurisdictions and many of you will have the opportunity at some point to do a master’s degree. This was really prompted by an article I was reading recently in Lawyer’s Weekly that I’ll link up in the show notes which you can get at TipsForLawyers.com/podcast/52. There you will see what was fairly transparently just an advertising platform for the college of law based here in Australia. They are releasing an applied law master’s degree. I know it’s something a lot of lawyers considered doing and they consider doing it at various stages of their career and they consider doing it for various reasons.

Within the context of hope training, I wanted to give you some thoughts on doing something like a master’s degree. I’m not going to comment specifically on the College of Law program but I did want to mention a few things for you consideration if you were in fact contemplating going ahead and doing a master’s degree. The first and most obvious consideration … We’re going to do it chronologically by career. What we’re going to have is people who have only just finished their law degree whether they should do a master’s degree. Really that depends on what you want to do and this issue is going to come up which is what is the reason you are doing the master’s degree? Is it because you haven’t been able to find a job and so in order to continue getting your income from the government or in order to hopefully be doing something rather than sitting on your hands, you’re going to do a master’s degree because it gives you that sense of actually achieving something rather than simply resting on your laurels or in fact, not feeling like you’re doing anything.

Perhaps you’ve gone through the round of clock office. Perhaps you’ve applied for a few jobs and you’ve been knocked back into thinking, “Wow. I’m really up against it here. I’m about to be graduated and I actually have nothing to do next year so maybe I should do a master’s degree in that circumstance.” To you firstly, I express some sympathies because it is a tough situation to be in but the reality is that doing a master’s degree is probably not going to change your job prospects that much unless the jobs you are looking for are jobs in an academic area because at the end of the day, a master’s degree is an academic program. Your lack of a master’s degree is not the reason that you haven’t got a job yet. Now, the reason you haven’t got a job might be many and varied but the people who are getting jobs are not people who have master’s degree. Your peers are getting jobs despite the absence of a master’s degree. You really need to ask yourself some tough questions. What is it that I’m not getting a job for?

Doing a...

Many young lawyers today go into the profession with no clear idea about what they can do to improve.  They rely entirely upon what I have decided to call the “hope” method.

They Hope that:

someone will assist them

they’ll get better at their job over time

their annual reviews will be positive and helpful

their partners will give useful feedback

they are on the right track

Does this sound familiar?  Firms encourage the hope method through ineffective CLE programs, mentoring programs and many more.

So how can you avoid the hope training method?  Let’s find out, in this podcast.

Happy lawyering!Many young lawyers today go into the profession with no clear idea about what they can do to improve.  They rely entirely upon what I have decided to call the “hope” method.

They Hope that:

someone will assist them

they’ll get better at their job over time

their annual reviews will be positive and helpful

their partners will give useful feedback

they are on the right track

Does this sound familiar?  Firms encourage the hope method through ineffective CLE programs, mentoring programs and many more.

So how can you avoid the hope training method?  Let’s find out, in this podcast.

Happy lawyering!

I just do not have the time.  Where do you find the time?  How could I do that?

These and more like them come up pretty often once people learn that I have a young family, work full time, run 2.75 websites, have 2 youtube channels and a podcast.

I also enjoy woodworking, gardening, reading and many more things.

So how is it possible?

Well trust me – it’s not because I’m great.  In fact, far from it.

But it is because I’ve made some deliberate decisions in my life that have freed me up to do more in certain areas.

Find out how in this podcast.

Resources to Free Up More Time

Essentialism and how you can apply it to your practice

Essentialism the book by Greg McKeown (affiliate link)

Get your Morning Routine Right!

Time Management Skills

Marketing plans are a waste of time

 

 I just do not have the time.  Where do you find the time?  How could I do that?

These and more like them come up pretty often once people learn that I have a young family, work full time, run 2.75 websites, have 2 youtube channels and a podcast.

I also enjoy woodworking, gardening, reading and many more things.

So how is it possible?

Well trust me – it’s not because I’m great.  In fact, far from it.

But it is because I’ve made some deliberate decisions in my life that have freed me up to do more in certain areas.

Find out how in this podcast.

Resources to Free Up More Time

Essentialism and how you can apply it to your practice

Essentialism the book by Greg McKeown (affiliate link)

Get your Morning Routine Right!

Time Management Skills

Marketing plans are a waste of time

 

 

In the reality of legal practice, you will absolutely 100 percent guaranteed come to a period of extreme pressure.

You know the times I mean.

It is when the weight is bearing down on you from all directions.  You have a million things at work to do, a thousand priorities to juggle, your personal life is a shambles, you’re not feeling well, the firm partners are putting the thumb screws on, and your clients are making unreasonable demands.

In fact – you might describe many days like that.

So you’re going to need a few strategies to deal with it, and that’s what this podcast will give you.  It doesn’t have to be too complex, just a couple of strategic decisions you can make in response to those kinds of situations which will let you maintain your high standards of work, keep your cool, and get the job done.

Resources on Stress and Pressure

Podcast on how to be a happier lawyer

Article on what stress is really like

The tyranny of the urgent

 In the reality of legal practice, you will absolutely 100 percent guaranteed come to a period of extreme pressure.

You know the times I mean.

It is when the weight is bearing down on you from all directions.  You have a million things at work to do, a thousand priorities to juggle, your personal life is a shambles, you’re not feeling well, the firm partners are putting the thumb screws on, and your clients are making unreasonable demands.

In fact – you might describe many days like that.

So you’re going to need a few strategies to deal with it, and that’s what this podcast will give you.  It doesn’t have to be too complex, just a couple of strategic decisions you can make in response to those kinds of situations which will let you maintain your high standards of work, keep your cool, and get the job done.

Resources on Stress and Pressure

Podcast on how to be a happier lawyer

Article on what stress is really like

The tyranny of the urgent

 

We have a lot of things to do as lawyers, but we are not always the best at managing what to do when.

It takes a strategic approach to properly allocate our work, and sometimes that involves some tough decision making.

In this podcast I explore the realities of time management for lawyers, and offer some strategic tips on how to go about getting it right.

In particular you need to take a look at the following areas:

Acknowledge that busy-ness is not positive, but rather productivity is

To do a to list or not to do a to do list?

Start saying no to as much as possible

How much time should you allocate a task – it’s less than what you think

Adopting a strategic approach to planning, but don’t go over the top

Don’t be a roadblock to others doing their jobs

Client service – it’s important to exceed expectations.

Resources in this Podcast on Time Management

The Tyranny of the Urgent

Essentialism for Lawyers

How to Say No to your Senior Partner

Happy lawyering!

 We have a lot of things to do as lawyers, but we are not always the best at managing what to do when.

It takes a strategic approach to properly allocate our work, and sometimes that involves some tough decision making.

In this podcast I explore the realities of time management for lawyers, and offer some strategic tips on how to go about getting it right.

In particular you need to take a look at the following areas:

Acknowledge that busy-ness is not positive, but rather productivity is

To do a to list or not to do a to do list?

Start saying no to as much as possible

How much time should you allocate a task – it’s less than what you think

Adopting a strategic approach to planning, but don’t go over the top

Don’t be a roadblock to others doing their jobs

Client service – it’s important to exceed expectations.

Resources in this Podcast on Time Management

The Tyranny of the Urgent

Essentialism for Lawyers

How to Say No to your Senior Partner

Happy lawyering!