JD Journal » drinker biddle & reath llp

Law Firms Relying More on Behavioral Interviewing to Find the Best Candidates

joshua — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:26:03 +0000

According to the article in The Legal Intelligencer, and posted August 27th at law.com, “Behavioral Interviewing Gains Momentum in Law Firm Hiring” by Gina Passarella, the underlying goals of law firm interviewers have changed.

Interviewers are looking for candidates who, in addition to being able to provide an excellent work product, can offer real world value to clients, and can handle the often stressful law firm environment.

Termed behavioral interviewing, the technique helps interviewers measure future job performance on how interviewees handled previous situations. It’s also called competency-based interviewing, which mirrors the move for many law firms toward competency-based advancement.

In the article, Christopher Boyle, hiring partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath, explained that behavioral interviewing isn’t a complex concept; it merely focuses on digging deeper into a candidate’s resume for examples of how he or she may have exhibited characteristics of an attorney for which the firm is looking. For example, do they have the ability to deal with adversity? Can they handle the repercussions when they make mistakes? Were they put into unexpected situations?

Candidates might be asked to field such questions as: “How did you handle the last time you received an unexpected project?” or “What was an innovative idea you came up with in the workplace?”

Hiring partner Eric Kraeutler from Morgan Lewis & Bockius explained behavioral interviewing is a way to talk with students about the important decisions they’ve made in their lives and why they made them, so as to better understand their decision-making abilities and their orientation to characteristics the firm believes are important.

In addition, Kraeutler said he views the traditional goal of behavioral interviewing — increasing attorney retention — to be in line with the refocused efforts of bringing on those who can add more for clients. Those attorneys will be the most successful at servicing clients and will then likely look to stay on with the firm because of their professional success, he said.

Morning Roundup

joshua — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:10:45 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Friday, August 20th. Here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s stories.

Drinker Biddle & Reath added a four-person team to its customs and international trade practice…

Thompson Hine partner Jeffrey R. Appelbaum was recognized by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland for his leadership of the Ohio Construction Reform Panel (OCRP)…

Corporate INTL awarded Fakhoury Law Group ‘Immigration Advisory Firm of the Year in Michigan’…

Drinker Biddle Snags International Trade Team

joshua — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:21:26 +0000

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP has added a four-person team to its customs and international trade practice from Hunton & Williams. Joining the firm’s Washington D.C. office are partners William A. Silverman and Douglas J. Heffner; counsel Richard P. Ferrin; and Eric L. Johnson as a senior international trade analyst.

The team focuses its practice primarily on international trade remedies litigation, concentrating on antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and administrative review proceedings. In addition, the practice involves representing clients in “sunset” reviews of antidumping and countervailing duty orders, as well as Section 201 “safeguard” proceedings under the Trade Act of 1974.

Clients include foreign manufacturing firms and international trading companies that are respondents in trade investigations, and U.S. companies that are petitioners in trade investigations.

“The addition of this well-respected team in Washington allows us to offer our clients additional resources in an area that will only become more important to them as the economy improves and global competition continues to increase,” said Alfred W. Putnam, Jr., Drinker Biddle’s chairman.

Drinker Biddle & Reath is a national law firm with 675 lawyers in 12 offices.

Andrew Lorin Joins Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

sara — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:10:30 +0000

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP announced that Andrew J. Lorin will be joining the firm’s insurance practice in downtown New York City. Lorin is a noted insurance industry investigator. He was the general counsel of the New York Liquidation Bureau and is a former Enforcement Section Chief of the Investor Protection Bureau in the New York Attorney General’s office.

Lorin is noted for implementing reforms while at the Liquidation Bureau. These reforms include recruiting qualified employees, reforming outdated procedures, resolving legal and regulatory issues, instituting financial controls and overseeing successful resolutions at troubled and insolvent insurance companies in New York state. Lorin received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a law degree from New York University and a master’s degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP is a national firm with 700 attorneys in 12 offices. The firms focuses its practice on life insurance and annuities, insurance coverage, commercial litigation, corporate restructuring, labor and unemployment, real estate, corporate and securities, intellectual property, government and regulatory affairs, private client services and several other areas.

DLA Piper Loses 4 Real Estate Lawyers

Erik Even — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:00:09 +0000

DLA Piper has shed four attorneys from its real estate practice in recent months.

Pamela Westhoff left the firm’s Los Angeles office, joining Sheppard Mullin as a partner.

San Francisco attorneys Donald Archer and Sara Hansen Wilson moved to Drinker Biddle & Reath as partners.

Chicago’s Michael Ben-Isvy joined Quarles & Brady as a partner.

DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms in the world, and is the only firm with more than 3,700 lawyers in North America and Europe. DLA Piper is a legal services organization whose members and affiliates are separate and distinct legal entities. Together, the organization operates in 28 countries and 66 offices throughout the world.

Drinker Biddle Will Not Defer Associates, But Will Cut Salaries

Erik Even — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:44:02 +0000

Drinker Biddle will allow its 36 incoming associates to start on time in September; but their salaries will be reduced, and they will enter a training program rather than jumping right in.

From a memo so long, we wondered if he catches the whale at the end:

Many of our lawyers have asked us whether we intend to modify our hiring program. In particular, given client questions about the value of very junior lawyers, it has been suggested that we should rely more on lateral hiring of more senior lawyers who have already received their initial training elsewhere. …we believe the answer is not to cut off the source of talent and future leaders of our firm by abandoning our traditional practice of hiring lawyers out of law schools. Nevertheless, we are now reviewing how we run our summer programs and train recent law school graduates to be Drinker Biddle lawyers. …we may very well hire fewer people and commit to train them better.

We have also decided to welcome and train our incoming lawyers rather than defer their arrival for months or a full year…

Accordingly, we are advising all of our incoming lawyers to join us in late September of this year and to expect to spend the first several months of their practice receiving intensive training – a training program far more rigorous and focused than any we have previously provided. Although much of this training will be focused on traditional legal skills relevant to particular areas of practice, we also expect to spend substantial time educating our new lawyers about our clients’ businesses and Drinker Biddle’s approach to adding value in countless practical ways…

During this initial period.. we will pay our incoming lawyers at an annual salary rate of $105,000. Any client work they perform will be billed at a significant rate reduction to ensure that, if new lawyers perform work for clients, the value is clear. In the spring of 2010 – once our new lawyers have been with us for at least six months – we expect to bring their compensation in line with then prevalent market rates for first-year lawyers.

The firm also announced a new flex time policy.

Some time in 2010, the firm plans to announce a new structure for associate compensation and bonuses.

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP was founded in Philadelphia in 1849. The firm has more than 650 attorneys in 12 offices in the US. Its largest offices are in Philadelphia; Chicago; Florham Park, New Jersey; and Washington, DC.