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Chicago and Washington

Chicago and Washington. Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington February 2009. Frank Kimball - Kimball Professional Management 773-528-7548 Frank@KimballProfessional.com. Today’s Program. Chicago Washington, D.C. Practice Areas Tactics – Strategies Beyond OCI .

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Chicago and Washington

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  1. Chicago and Washington Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington February 2009 Frank Kimball - Kimball Professional Management 773-528-7548 Frank@KimballProfessional.com (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  2. Today’s Program • Chicago • Washington, D.C. • Practice Areas • Tactics – Strategies • Beyond OCI (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  3. The 2008-2009 Recession Causes, Effects and Impact on Law School Students

  4. Recession – Cause & Effect • Manic boom in real estate, sub prime mortgages, and securitization collapses rapidly in Summer 2007 • Economic boom sputters and slowdown gathers momentum in Fall and Winter 2007-08 • Flow of deals, lending, mortgages, and structured finance drops rapidly • First lay offs by law firms seen early 2008 • Layoffs grow and spread from Summer 2008 through today • By summer law firms begin to face economic facts as utilization drops • Firms embrace numerous measures - layoffs, comp freeze, salary reductions, staff cuts (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  5. What Prudent Students Must Assume • A reduction in invitations after OCI • A reduction in offers after call back interviews • Students will accept offers more quickly • Some firms summer programs are “over subscribed” • Firms will be less willing to grant multi city split summers. • Less tolerance for slow starters in the associate ranks • A recognition that something has changed in litigation which will finally effect entry-level hiring (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  6. Researching Law FirmsDependable Sources • Websites • Recent experiences with Indiana Students • Legal Media • Business Media • Your own independent assessment (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  7. Researching Law FirmsDubious and Dangerous Sources • www.AboveTheLaw.com • Friends and room-mates • The brother of a friend of a guy you met at a bar last Tuesday • Law school ancient grapevine • Random anonymous bloggers (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  8. Master Local National Legal and Business Media • www.ChicagoTribune.com • www.NYTimes.com • www.WSJ.com & blogs.wsj.com/law/ • NYLawyer.com • www.chambersandpartners.com • www.AmericanLawyer.com • www.LawBulletin.com • www.AboveTheLaw.com • www.chicagobusiness.com • Legal Times of Washington (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  9. Students Who Must Explore Options Beyond OCIShotguns Trump Rifles • Launch effort In mid August • Attack a wide range of targets immediately • Don’t wait for OCI to play itself out • Broad mass mailing to firms >25 lawyers who don’t do OCI • Use your law school and/or undergraduate network –aggressively and creatively • E-mail resume, transcript, writing sample, reference. • Explain tie to the market and practice area interest • Use Word 03 – Many firms have not moved to Word 2007 – even better turn all files into PDFs. • Title files intelligibly “Smith John Harvard 2010 Resume.doc • Explain when you will be visiting (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  10. Grades Matter Other Things Matter Even More

  11. The New Hiring Math- Impact on Students (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  12. Grades Matter in 2009 • Law school grades matter at all schools during this season. • However – firms will look beyond grades to journals, moot court, work experience, attitude, energy, ties to a city and seriousness about private practice • Bad attitude, poor preparation, or mediocre intangibles is fatal • Selective firms will be even more selective in 2009 (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  13. Windy City Selectivity • For decades the most selective firms in terms of GPA, schools, and extra curriculars have been Kirkland, Sidley, Mayer, and Skadden Arps. • Generally many other premier mega and national firms have been a shade less selective – e.g., Jenner, Winston, McDermott, Katten, Schiff, Sonnenschein, Seyfarth Shaw. • Large Chicago offices of national firms with HQ elsewhere are a shade less selective than the first group – e.g., Jones Day, Latham, Foley, Greenberg Traurig, Holland & Knight, McGuire Woods. • Do not assume that an elite mid size or smaller firm will not be selective on grades. Indeed because they are hiring fewer 2L’s they will be equally selective on GPA and even more careful on personality, intangibles, energy, private practice focus, ambition, and work experience. (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  14. Chicago – A Rapidly-Changing Market for Law Firms

  15. As a place to live and work • Cost of living • Real Estate • Taxes • Schools • Commuting • Culture Cubs Pizza (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  16. National Firms Outnumber Homegrown (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  17. Class of 2007 in 104 Chicago Law Firms (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  18. Mega Firms With Original Office in Chicago (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  19. 21 National Firms Large / Fast Growing / Ambitious Plans (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  20. Six Chicago Based Firms With 150-250 Lawyers (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  21. National Firms With Small Chicago Footprints (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  22. Elite Firms With <100 Lawyers (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  23. Intellectual Property Firms (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  24. 6. Leaders in Selected Practice Areas

  25. Corporate (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  26. Banking and Finance (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  27. Private Equity (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  28. Corporate M&A (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  29. Capital Markets: Debt & Equity (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  30. Derivatives and Structured Products (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  31. Project Finance (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  32. Investment Management (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  33. International • Cross-border transactional work involving corporate, banking, real estate, project finance, tax litigation, and other lawyers. • Chicago’s volume of international legal work has grown but still is far lower than what is found in New York. • Certain mega firms have an increasing amount of international work for their Chicago associates - e.g., Kirkland, Sidley, Mayer, Winston, Skadden, Jones Day, Baker & McKenzie - to name a few - it is in contrast to New York where working on international matters is a more day to day occurrence. • Most firms do not have an ‘international’ department • The best advice for students: ask a firm for the percentage of transactional work which is cross-border. • Does work originate in Chicago or is it serviced in Chicago? (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  34. Real Estate (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  35. Health Care (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  36. Energy /Natural Resources / Utilities (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  37. Entertainment / Media / Sports (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  38. Litigation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  39. Securities Litigation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  40. Antitrust Litigation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  41. Bankruptcy – Restructuring (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  42. Labor & Employment (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  43. Appellate (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  44. Patent – I.P. Litigation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  45. White Collar (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  46. Environmental (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  47. Insurance–Litigation/Regulatory/Coverage (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  48. Products Liability Litigation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  49. Taxation (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

  50. ERISA / Employee Benefits (c) 2009 Franklyn D. Kimball

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