Timothy Nitsch was once an engineer before becoming an attorney at SNR Denton which is a reputable law firm. During his time at SNR Denton, Nitsch did not receive many tips on how he would be able to further his career as an attorney. He took it upon himself to find information on different law firms that would be able to give him better opportunities.
A few months passed and Nitsch was now developing decent relationship with recruiters who could help him to develop. Nitsch says, “I watched the market to see how the firm I was at was developing financially and how they were presenting themselves to the legal industry, and also, how other firms were doing that.” Nitsch also stated, “I started looking for firms that fit my criteria of where I wanted to go.”
Nitsch was able to find a firm that fit his criteria in August and became an associate at Levenfeld Pearlstein almost immediately. Nitsch says, “SNR Denton was content with the work I was doing, but there really wasn’t a push to help me develop any additional skills or any clients or move to the next level.”
While Nitsch was satisfied with his own work at the law firm, he had hopes of developing new and additional skills that would further his opportunities and his ability to succeed in the legal field. Nitsch says, “Levenfeld is more geared toward finding new business and promoting associates in finding new business. It’s not so much go out and get business and bring it in immediately, but they assist you in identifying prospects and then harvesting business from those prospects over the long-term.”
Like many other lawyers, Nitsch wanted to join a law firm that would help him to develop his career as a lawyer. With developing his career, he would be able to find more clients and learn plenty of new things. The president of a reputable legal recruiting firm in Chicago has said that she is seeing lawyers change firms now more than ever before. The average lawyer will only change firms once or twice during their career, but some lawyers will change firms multiple times.
Many prestigious law firms are only hiring the best of the best lawyers. Some of these law firms include Kirkland & Ellis, Arps, Slate, and Meagher & Flom. Hiring the best lawyers helps the company to grow as a whole with a detailed strategy plan. Richard Levy, who is a partner at Latham & Watkins, has even said, “Before the three former Kirkland partners, we didn’t really have that component of a sophisticated real estate practice. It would have taken much longer to achieve the level of practice that we now enjoy.”
Many other firms are taking the same approach as these major law firms to help them develop their own firm and practices. It is important to continuously develop a firm and practice so that it can meet the needs of all clients.