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)