Essential Reading
The name of the game is not to memorize
the publications or to spend dozens of hours. It is to make you conversant with
trends and developments in the community. Five hours a week is a small
investment compared to the 40 year career you are about to begin.
All
young lawyers should read - ❏ The American Lawyer (the best monthly national
magazine on large firm practice) ❏ the New York Times ❏ Wall Street Journal ❏
The National Law Journal (an outstanding weekly national newspaper), For now
I’ll let you skip The Financial Times.
Keith Ferrazzi - Never Eat Alone - this is the best book I’ve
ever read on networking for high end professionals. The youngest partner in the
Delloitte Management Consulting Firm he became the Firms’ Chief Marketing
Officer, moved to Starwood Hotels in the same function, and the launched his
own incredibly successful firm. The book is brisk, readable, inspiring,
concrete, and useful. I’ve given away 290 copies of this text to lawyers I work
with - no better book in the field
Curious
historians should read Marc Galanter and Thomas Palay, Tournament of Lawyers
(Univ.
of Chicago Press 1991)(a detailed analysis of the evolution of large law firms)
and Paul Hoffman, Lions in the Street: The Inside Story of the Great Wall
Street Law Firms, (1973, Signet) (the first book to discuss the genesis of Wall Street firms).
To
learn more about interviewing skills and techniques read Arnold B. Kanter, The
Essential Art of Interviewing — Interviews from Both Sides of the Table (New
York Times Press 1997)(Banter was for years the hiring partner of Chicago's
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal firm. For fifteen years he has been a
management consultant to law firms and investment banks nationally on all
aspects of hiring)
Harvey
Mackay, Shark Proof - Get The Job You Want, Keep the Job You Love (Harper
Business 1993)(Mackay's book is a wonderful compendium of real life stories of
people who put networking and contact theory to work in business. It lends
credence to many of the theories you may find foreign or unpersuasive. Readable
and memorable);
Anthony
Medley, Sweaty Palms —The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed (Ten Speed Press
2002 (this brief but excellent book focuses on the give and take of
interviews.)
Freund,
James C., Lawyering—A Realistic Approach to Legal Practice (Law Journal Seminars
Press 1979).(This is the single best volume on the nature of the partner
associate relationship in law firms. Freund, a former senior partner with
Skadden apps, walks the reader through every aspect of attorney development. The
book is practical and insightful)