There are a few basic questions you should ask when speaking to a potential recruiter to ensure you find the appropriate person to handle your job search. A responsible, professional recruiter will answer your questions and make you feel comfortable with the process, ensuring you of their skill and professionalism. They will make no promises and be straightforward with your marketability, i.e. what they can do for you and what you can do on your own.

1. What companies do you represent? Do you have a niche market, such as bringing firm lawyers in-house, or placing predominantly at tech companies?

You need to find a recruiter that places attorneys in the setting you are looking for, even if you may not be in one of those positions now. Talk with them and let them know exactly what you are looking for, as well as your background, so they can determine if you are good prospective hire for their type of placements. Every recruiter has stronger relationships with some entities over others. Even though they represent many firms, they may have a tighter relationship with some than others.

2. How large is your firm? How many recruiters do you have working for you, and if there are several, may I select which recruiter I want to work with?

Bigger doesn’t always mean better, so it’s good to know how large the firm is, and if they do searches for non-legal candidates as well. If you feel like you’re not going to get personal service, they may not be the right firm for you. Additionally, sometimes you will connect better with one recruiter than another, and you may want to focus your time with someone specific. It is better to know how the recruiting relationship will work, especially at the start.

3. What geographic areas does your firm search in?

If you’re looking for something local, it may be better to stick with a recruiter with predominantly local contacts, as they are likely to have more of them. However, if you are looking more widely, a recruiter that searches more widely will be in your best interest. You will likely need to ask directly to find out.

4. How long have you been in business? At what sorts of companies, and what positions, have you placed attorneys?

An established recruiter will have resources in the legal community that they can utilize to your benefit. They will likely know of more job openings, including many that have not been announced publicly, and they may even be doing special searches for specific employers. The more connections they have the most likely they will be successful in finding you the right job.

5. Will you make any changes to my resume or other application materials before they are sent to prospective employers?

You should have control over all of your documents, and recruiters should respect that right. However, recruiters usually know how to best tailor your resume to fit the employer and position, so their advice should be strongly taken into account. Review all suggestions for changes and edit and finalize yourself – you need to keep control of your documents.  Ask that you see the final draft before it is submitted, and make sure they will be willing to proofread and edit for you as necessary.

An ideal recruiter will set expectations and guide you through the process.  It is important for candidates to understand that recruiters can’t work miracles and every candidate should still be searching on their own behalf.  The more the candidate is deeply entrenched in the process the more prepared the candidate will be to accept the offer when the right one comes along.

Starting with these guidelines will help you find the right recruiter for your job search.

Catherine Valentine is Logitech’s General Counsel, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Vice President responsible for the company’s worldwide in-house legal staff and outside legal counsel. Prior to joining Logitech, Catherine was Vice President and General Counsel for Intuit, Inc., as well as serving as General Counsel for other innovative Silicon Valley companies such as Good Technology, Macromedia, Go Corporation, and Autodesk. She earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

What advice would you offer a junior attorney interested in becoming a General Counsel, and what path would you recommend that she/he take to reach this goal?

I don’t think there’s a specific path to becoming a GC — people will come to that in many different ways. But there are common approaches to how lawyers do their work that individuals need to develop to become a GC.

First, learn to speak business language. When you go in-house at the GC level, you’re going to interact with people around the table who probably all went to business school – you didn’t. These people will have a particular way of working with and analyzing data, as well as describing things that’s different from legal speak. To communicate, you’re going to have to learn this language. If I were a prospective lawyer who knew with certainty that I wanted to work in-house, I’d get a combined MBA/JD.

Understand that you’re going to have to make risk and benefit tradeoffs. Legal advice may not be the determining factor in analyzing the response to a situation. There’s stuff that’s illegal and stuff that’s risky. Sometimes that risk-benefit trade off is such that what you’re advising may not be the most important thing that drives a decision.

Resources are limited and not all legal issues are of equal importance. Unfortunately, when I was in law school, and I assume it is still the case today, you were rewarded for identifying every single legal issue.  I can’t think of a worse way to deal with a CEO. You have to understand what is really important to the business and to the executive you are advising, and limit your discussion to those issues.   Also, when you identify a legal problem, in most cases you are not adding value if you don’t propose a solution, or at least an approach to developing a solution.  It may be as simple as saying, “We need to get these people together to talk.”  But you don’t dump things in executives’ laps.

It’s often better to get a good deal that benefits both parties than it is to get a great deal that offers a limited benefit to the other party. Contract terms don’t make you whole if the party you’re talking to loses interest and walks away from the deal. You also have to know when you have leverage — and when you don’t.  When you don’t, you need to address the issue in some other way rather than continuing to engage in fruitless and prolonged negotiations –   which may mean advising your executive that they have to compromise, or even give up on what they want.

And when you present to executives be very clear on what you want them to do and state it upfront in the presentation. Is the presentation just informational, or do you want them to make a decision? If it is the latter, be sure that they have the necessary authority and information to make a decision. One of executives’ limited resources is their time and they want to be sure they are making good use of it.  Before any information is presented, they will want to know why they are spending time listening to you and what you expect of them. 

As for the best path to becoming a GC:

• Find someone who’s really a good GC and watch him or her work.
• Work directly with business people to understand their challenges — sit in their meetings and listen to all the other things, besides legal issues, that are competing for their attention and limited resources.
• Take business or finance training after graduation, as well as courses in marketing or basic business strategy — to better understand how executives communicate, what they consider to be important, and how they analyze problems.

Judith O’Brien recently served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Obopay, Inc., a global provider of mobile payment solutions. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Ciena and formerly served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Adaptec and several privately held companies.  She also previously served as a Managing Director at Incubic Venture Fund and was a partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for more than two decades. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.

What advice would you offer a junior attorney interested in becoming a General Counsel, and what path would you recommend that she/he take to reach this goal?

There are several skills you need to be a general counsel:

•     Breadth — Familiarity and comfort with a wide range of issues

•     Decision-Making Skills — The ability to analyze problems and help management make sound business decisions

The best route for doing this is to start in a corporate practice. It can help to have securities experience, but the initial law firm doesn’t necessarily have to be a big securities practice.

What’s most important is that a young lawyer get exposed to a broad range of legal issues, so that he or she learns how to deal with a lot of different problems.

I started with Wilson, Sonsini when it was quite small. We served as outside general counsel to a lot of startup companies. I had to be able to go to a board meeting and deal with not only financing and the more traditional corporate securities issues, but also with licensing, litigation, and even employee issues such as wrongful termination or layoffs.

As a general counsel, that’s precisely the kind of experience that you need to have. You may not always know the latest law — particularly with privacy issues and all the complexities in the technology space today — but you have to be able to cover everything.

It’s also important for junior attorneys to learn how to really listen and talk through problems — and to understand that there isn’t a legal answer to everything, sometimes you need to balance the law with business practicalities and use your judgment. But you have to know that when certain circumstances arise you have to take a stand, and if you feel strongly about something, forcefully express your opinion and don’t be too deferential.

Shawn Soderberg is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Aricent Group, a global innovation and technology services firm that helps companies create and evolve communications products and services. Before joining Aricent, Shawn was Managing Director and General Counsel at H&Q Asia Pacific, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Oak Technology, and Vice President and General Counsel at Microtec Research. She received her BS in Accounting from Santa Clara University, and J.D. from Seattle University School of Law.

What advice would you offer a junior attorney interested in becoming a General Counsel, and what path would you recommend that she/he take to reach this goal?

I think it’s critical that someone aiming to be a GC have a genuine interest in and acclimation for business. To be a successful GC, you must understand the business and enjoy spending a large portion of your time working with the CEO and other executives on business and strategy-related matters. I have also found that if you truly understand the business, you are much better in risk assessment. An undergraduate degree in accounting or finance can be very useful.  Not only must a GC be able to manage his/her own budget, but also understand the drivers of the business through the financial statements.

I do not recommend going directly from law school to in-house. It’s critical that a young lawyer get some solid training at a law firm and this is something I look for when recruiting for in-house positions. While at a law firm, I recommend that a lawyer who aspires to be a GC obtain substantial experience in corporate and securities law. These are much harder disciplines to pick up on your own than practical experience with employment, litigation or other areas of the law.

Once you have preferably five years of law firm training, I recommend finding an in-house position with a start-up or smaller, yet dynamic corporation where there are only a few lawyers. Larger companies often “pigeon-hole” their lawyers in areas much like a law firm, and I think it’s critical to get exposure to all different aspects of an in-house legal environment.  Also, a start-up business is generally more unstructured and fast-paced, and this will provide a young lawyer with a lot of responsibility and accountability, and help hone his or her abilities to prioritize what can make a difference to the business, act decisively and communicate succinctly — in a manner understood by business people.

A key element that separates an effective in-house lawyer from an ineffective one is good judgment and this is developed through experience and being thrown into unique situations where you are forced to make decisions and learn from your mistakes. With start-ups, it’s often “do or die”, so a lawyer must live and breathe the business and deal with cost and competitive pressures — helping you find out very quickly if you have the proper business aptitude and can deal with the imperfections that come with the risk-benefit analysis.   A young lawyer in this type of environment will obtain good business experience as well as legal experience.

As a general counsel, you will spend a large portion of your time, developing and managing your team. So, obtaining management experience — either at the law firm or in your in-house position — is important.

Also, in today’s global environment it’s important to gain international exposure because as a GC you will likely need to deal with many cultures and geographies. So, when looking for that first in–house job, look for a company with some international presence or that’s building in that direction.

In my view, whether or not someone is adept at being an effective GC typically comes down to innate personality traits or qualities. You need natural leadership ability, confidence and a commanding “presence.” Being decisive and comfortable making a firm recommendation is critical. You also have to be able to communicate in a direct, concise, non-legalese manner that demonstrates your competence. And a GC must have the utmost integrity.  One has to be comfortable in drawing certain boundaries and sometimes exercising judgment that is not aligned with management directives. However, if a GC demonstrates good business judgment, has earned the respect of the management team and is generally proactive and collaborative in moving the business objectives forward, business groups will listen when the way forward must be something other than the desired path.

Kim Funk recently joined Roku, Inc. — which makes and markets players used to stream media from the Internet on television sets — as VP–General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to Roku, Kim was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for ILOG S.A., a leader in decision automation and supply-chain solutions that’s now a part of IBM. She also served as a litigation partner in a Houston-based boutique admiralty firm and was an in-house litigator for American Airlines. Kim received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center.

What advice would you offer a junior attorney interested in becoming a General Counsel, and what path would you recommend that she/he take to reach this goal?

First and foremost, it is helpful to have both in-house and private practice experience.  It is fine to specialize initially, but I don’t recommend becoming an expert in a single practice area.  Private practice necessarily requires specialization, but if you can, ask to move around the practice areas within a firm to get exposure to multiple specialties.  GCs need to be comfortable making decisions across various disciplines — and it can be very hard to do that if you’ve only ever handled securities matters or done M&A work.  I would also seek out Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and litigation experience.  GC’s drive the SOX compliance effort and have to make litigation decisions, and you’ll be far more comfortable making those decisions if you are familiar with SOX requirements and have handled litigation matters at some point in your career.

More generally, one of the best pieces of advice I can offer is to get comfortable giving definitive advice and making recommendations.  Business executives hate the “it depends” answer.  I also think GCs need to know basic accounting principles, so put that on your list of things to learn.  The finance and legal teams work hand in hand, and understanding the company’s business model,  knowing the margins of the different business segments/units, as well as the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement are essential to following and participating in Board discussions and executive staff meetings.

Lastly, every interaction is an opportunity to learn something.  In any discussion or meeting, you’ll enhance your credibility if you understand all aspects of the business.  You can also enhance your analysis of any business or legal risk by listening and learning what’s important to the executive team.  So, pay attention!

Jennifer Pileggi is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at SGI, the trusted leader in technical computing. Previously, she was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Con-way, Inc., a global freight transportation and logistics services company. Jennifer started her in-house career as the first attorney for Menlo Worldwide Logistics, a Con-way subsidiary. She also spent more than six years in private practice at Heller Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, and a smaller firm in San Francisco. Jennifer received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

What advice would you offer a junior attorney interested in becoming a General Counsel, and what path would you recommend that she/he take to reach this goal?

When I started working in private practice, I always felt somewhat removed from my clients, so I jumped at the chance to become the first in-house attorney for a fast-growing subsidiary of a large transportation company in the Bay Area.

 At first, I didn’t report to the parent company general counsel because the legal department was very decentralized. Instead, I reported directly to my business unit president.  And, I had to figure out on my own what I needed to do to succeed there. I had been a corporate lawyer, but I needed to transform myself into both a business lawyer and a business partner. It was a great opportunity because it allowed me to learn the business really quickly and to figure out what was required to move the business forward. 

I believe that being a “public company” attorney is a skill that one can learn, but you can’t make yourself into a good business-minded attorney. Being a good business lawyer is really about understanding everything about your client’s business, whether you’re in private practice or not, and helping the business achieve its strategic goals.

You need to be flexible and responsive. You need to understand the business well enough to be creative. If your CEO comes to you and says, “I want to buy this company or open an office in this country,” you need to be able to quickly say, “Okay, here are the risks associated with that. Here’s how we mitigate them — and let’s move forward.” Sometimes you have to put your foot down regarding legal risks, but more often it’s about figuring out how to mitigate and avoid risks.

I think the idea of following a ‘path’ to becoming a GC is less important because you can get there through a variety of means. Certainly, if you have transactional or securities experience, you have a great shot at getting into the legal department of one of your clients. But to stand out as a general counsel, you need to show that you know the business well enough to be creative and flexible in business, and not just as an attorney.

You’re a lawyer, first and foremost. But you also have to understand that there are competing risks associated with every decision. You need to help guide your senior executive team to make the right decisions for the company, and then also balance those perceived risks with the business opportunities you’ll face every day, all in support of your corporate goals and objectives.

 Limitations of Billable Hours

The billable hour model initially secured popularity because of its clarity and objectivity. The underlying concept was that firm intent on keeping clients long-term would not overcharge them, and the client could see clear descriptions of services rendered without having these coupled with seemingly-abstract costs per task.

Unfortunately, this model by its nature rewards inefficiency while providing little to no structure upon which to base future cost predictions. It provides no incentive for firms to streamline their services or to outsource tasks to lower-cost providers. It also puts pressure on attorneys to increase their hours worked per week, adding stress and unhappiness to the profession. As the economy struggles and companies must try harder to stretch every dollar, new increasingly-efficient methods are finally able to take root in an industry so often dominated by tradition. 

Alternative Fee Arrangements

There is no one specific ‘alternative fee arrangement.’ Rather, there are a variety of methods that each have their own upsides and downsides, but share the commonality of departing from the billable hour norm. The most popular include fixed fees, phased fees, milestone based fees, volume arrangements, and even bonus and contingency fees. Individual firms will craft an arrangement that fits it best, and can further tailor or hybridize it’s system to meet a specific client’s needs. In order to make these alternatives effective, a firm seeking to implement a nontraditional model must consider all avenues and thoroughly prepare for the transition. They must also establish the trust of the client and potential clientele, since a successful arrangement needs to bring perceptible added benefit to both sides.

The benefit of alternative fee arrangements are the downsides of billable hours: reduction in cost, improvement in efficiency, and enhanced predictability. The hours spent on a case may have little relationship to the result, and alternate models embrace this reality. When properly implemented, alternative fee arrangements lead to clients with higher satisfaction because fee structures are more in line with their overall company goals.

 1. Update Your Resume

A current resume is a must. Have a friend (preferably several) proof-read it after every revision. Typos stand out and can be memorable in unfavorable ways. Keep descriptions concise and focused, and make sure that everything fits on limited pages in an eye-pleasing manner. Your resume and cover letter are your true first impressions, make them count. 

2. Network and Market Yourself

Don’t be shy about letting your friends, former colleagues and family know you are confidentially job-hunting.  Use social media and your contacts to get in touch with former classmates and previous co-workers.  Let everyone know about the type of position you are looking for, and tell them that you can provide a resume and cover letter if asked.  You’re not imposing: most people will naturally want to help.  While it is unlikely that you will immediately land a job this way, you will start making connections and will have put yourself in good position when something does open up.

 3. Be Available

Employers can’t hire you if you don’t give them a way to contact you.  Make sure that all of your application information is up to date, and try to minimize confusion.  If you have two email addresses, pick one and use it for all of your job-hunt contact, and then make sure you check it at least daily. 

Additionally, list a cell phone number on your resume. Hiring staff will often strongly prefer one method of contact over the other. Always respond to any emails and missed calls promptly.   Employers get frustrated when they don’t get quick turnaround.

4. Tailor Your Application Materials

Simply sending out a stock resume and cover letter to every opening you find won’t get you far.  Make sure to research every employer, every job, and when possible, the specific hiring entity.  Tailor your information to the specific opening to make it clear you are serious.  

Don’t be afraid to tailor your resume, not just your cover letter.  No two jobs are exactly alike, and the way you describe your skills and qualifications need not be, either.  By highlighting your strengths in relation to a particular hiring need, employers are more likely to take notice.

5. Treat the Job-Hunt Like a Job

If you are unemployed while job-hunting, that will be beneficial, as finding a new job can be a full-time position itself.  Set aside work hours dedicated to all aspects of the job hunt, including networking. 

If you are still working, you will have to make the time to search and apply properly.  Sometimes candidates may want to take some vacation time from their current position to study the market and work towards a successful career change.

Finding a new position can be challenging in this economy.  Taking consistent and diligent steps will make the most of your time and effort.

Top 20 Interview Questions

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What is motivating you to seek alternative employment at this time?
3. What did you like or dislike about your current/previous job?
4. What were your responsibilities?
5. What major challenges or problems did you face, and how did you handle them?
6. What is your greatest strength?
7. What is your greatest weakness?
8. How do you handle stress and pressure?
9. Describe a difficult work situation or project and how you overcame it.
10. Tell me about a suggestion that you have made that has been successfully implemented.
11. What was the biggest professional accomplishment/disappointment?
12. What kind of decisions do you find most difficult to take?
13. Why do you want this job?
14. In what area do you think you need to develop yourself to be ready for this position?
15. What would your current co-workers have to say if asked about you?
16. What are your goals for the future?
17. What are you passionate about?
18. What are your salary requirements?
19. Are you willing to travel or relocate if necessary?
20. Do you have any questions for us?

Prepare

While there are no ‘right’ answers to these questions, it is possible to determine and streamline your own response before the actual interview. Off-the-cuff reaction may make you sound unprepared or even unprofessional, and will increase your anxiety. By considering the questions beforehand, you give yourself a time to craft and control the presentation and content of your replies to best advantage.

Interviewers want details, not generalizations. By going over the questions in advance you allow yourself to recall specifics to make your answers more interesting and pertinent. Further, by writing them out, you force yourself to consider their phrasing and delivery. This step makes the difference between a calm response and a stuttering, choppy one.

Practice

Once you know what you want to say and how you want to say it, practice repeating these answers out loud. Do so with the same tone and inflection you are likely to use in the interview. Say them in front of your mirror, to a spouse or significant other, or even to the dog. Be mindful of your facial expression and annunciation as you do so. Do not discount the importance of muscle memory: verbalizing your written answers will help you to retain them and will give them a more natural flow. When you are asked these questions in the interview, they will feel comfortable.

By taking the time to prepare and practice before your interview you will increase your confidence and make the most of your opportunity.