No matter what the differences will be a decade from now, it is safe to say that young lawyers will always have similar personal and professional concerns as they jump the hurdle from education to practice. Those concerns will be similar without regard to the school attended, the corner of the profession chosen, whether you are the first or one of many lawyers in your extended family, and whether you are “going home” to the city where you were raised or moving to a city you have never lived in before. This generation of law school graduates is quite different from my generation.

Among the notable differences are these:

• There has been a profound demographic shift in the ethnic and gender composition of law school graduating classes (although much more needs to be done and will be done on both fronts);
• The modern law firm has become a business, with all the attendant pressures of profitability, cost reduction, competition for clients, and long-term planning and strategic decisions;
• The number of students graduated by the top law schools has remained the same for decades. When the economy booms, law firms nationally will continue to reach farther and farther across the country, and deeper into the class to meet their needs;
• The ability to raise rates to maintain profitability is over. Premium billing will become a rarity unless we encounter a boom like the amazing Eighties.

The pressure on lawyers to work harder and be more efficient will only increase no matter whether you are on Wall Street, Amarillo, Portland, Topeka, Philadelphia, Chicago, or Los Angeles. This is not a random selection. The day I was married, I realized that all eight members of the wedding party were lawyers. These are the cities where we practiced at the time. While most are trial lawyers, the group includes federal prosecutors, small firm partners, and partners in the nation’s largest firms. When we sit and chat about life, we all have the same concerns about family, spouse, time, practice, and professionalism. It’s a point worth remembering when you feel isolated in your earlier years. That we are not unique may be the most comforting fact of all. Issues like conflicts of interest, professional liability, and the like will arise more often than you think.

At a minimum all of this means the following for new lawyers:

• You will have to grow up faster and smarter than any earlier generation of new lawyers
• Even as the economy recovers, law firms will remain quicker to judge and evaluate than they may have been during the booms of the last three decades.
• Because you are much more likely to marry another equally ambitious professional, the personal quandaries of family and private time will be even tougher to tackle than they were for my generation.

You are entering a learning profession – just because you are no longer a student at a school does not mean the learning will stop for you. On the plus side, your day-to-day activities will change and there will be constant challenges for you to overcome. On the other hand, no one will be holding your hand to make sure your professional career is on the right track. Yes, your firm will have training opportunities and yes, you are required to attend a couple of CLE courses throughout the year; however, for every exciting project you work on, there will be three you have no interest in. To avoid burnout or get “stuck” in a practice you don’t like, you must take the initiative to develop your own lesson plan and your own professional career.

Just as is true with other fundamental decisions you will make, e.g., when marrying, buying a home, or deciding where to go to law school, selecting a law firm is a process where fact, logic, and analysis are often cast to the wind and replaced by emotions, momentum, irrelevant data, and an absence of objectivity and independence. A decision which involves forty years of practice and millions of dollars in income deserves more careful scrutiny. The process is easier for employers than it is for young lawyers considering a “lateral” move. You don’t have to stick with your original firm for the rest of your life – loyalty to a law firm (and to employees) is no longer the reality in the legal profession of today. However, you should pick a firm that you would at least consider staying around for the long haul. It is very difficult to lateral out to a new firm your first few years of practice. Additionally, several firms prefer the homegrown associate over the lateral associate in terms of partnership promotions.

These tips are provided by Frank Kimball, a principal of Lateral Link. Frank has interviewed, hired, placed, or counseled more than 11,500 law students and attorneys, and is the only principal of a search and consulting firm to work as a former hiring partner at one of the nation’s twenty largest law firms.