Legal Career Advice & Counseling
West Career Counseling for Attorneys
Frequently Asked Questions about Legal Career Counseling How much will this cost me?
We charge $150 per hour for our counseling services. The average client spends less than four hours in our program, and the average cost is approximately $700. This also includes our preparation time.
When you ask us to critique and recommend improvements to your resume and other application documents, we do no work until you have approved our time estimate.
How do your fees compare with other legal career counselors?
Our fees are much lower. Most career counseling organizations that handle attorneys charge up-front fees of several thousand dollars.
What do you mean by "preparation time?"
In order for you to get the most out of a consultation, we need to have time to prepare for our in-person or telephone meeting with you. Preparation entails a detailed evaluation of your resume and/or other application documents (if you request this service), and "research and development" in order to give you detailed advice as to where you should be focusing your job search/career change (and what you have to do to achieve your goal) given your specific combination of skills, background, experience, interests, compensation requirements, geographic preferences, and employer preferences and constraints.
How do your counseling services differ from your competitors?
Most career counselors impart very little beyond resume preparation in the way of substantive services. They rely heavily on aptitude testing, providing you with finished printed resumes and cover letters, unsolicited submissions of these resumes to hundreds of law firms and corporations (whether they are currently hiring or not), and some "motivational" pep talks.
We offer not only a realistic assessment of what you can do and where you can go with your combination of unique factors, but also detailed advice and specifics on how to get there. We also are the leading experts on legal career alternatives for candidates who wish to use their legal background outside traditional legal venues.
Will you set me up with interviews?
No. That is not the province of legal career transition counseling. For that, you need to be one of the handful of highly-sought after attorneys who can attract the interest of a "head-hunter."
What if I cannot come into your office in person?
That is not a problem. In fact, we do most of our "one-on-one" counseling by telephone with candidates throughout the U.S. Several of our large, organizational clients with many attorneys in numerous geographic locations actually require that all of our counseling with their attorneys be done by phone. We also exchange documents by fax and e-mail.
What if I am interested in working only in a particular geographic area?
Thanks to our extensive experience with organizational outplacement clients in many areas of the country as well as internationally, we continually monitor the legal and law-related job markets throughout the U.S. and abroad. We share this information with our individual legal career transition counseling candidates who express interest in particular geographic areas. We also have access to the daily intelligence derived from our parent company's research and production of the AttorneyJobsOnline.com database.
Describe the "typical" attorney who seeks your assistance.
There is no typical client. We have counseled over 4,000 attorneys ranging from law students who have second thoughts about practicing law to senior partners in prominent law firms who are getting bored with their practices, and any other type of attorney imaginable.
Can you help me determine what to do with my law degree in combination with my prior career in an unrelated field?
Yes, we can. We have had considerable experience advising attorneys with this kind of "dual" background, including attorney/MBAs; JD/MDs; JD/MSWs; JD/MPHs; JD/CPAs; JD/Computer Science; and many others. We have also written and published four books on legal career alternatives, and our counselors are often asked to speak about this topic before legal audiences nation-wide.
What kind of legal career counseling services are most often requested?
Our most requested services (in order of demand) are:
Identifying suitable and realistic practice areas, employment sectors, industries and specific employers, as well as alternative ("non-mainstream") career fields based on your unique background and interests, and pinpointing specific potential employers.
Improving employment application documents (resumes, cover letters, application forms, business/marketing plans, writing samples, Federal Administrative Law Judge [ALJ] applications, etc.) to ensure that you make the best possible presentation to prospective employers.
Selecting and assessing alternative careers where your law degree and legal background would be an asset.
Determining where, with whom, and how to "network" and utilize your contacts to best effect, and to do this without apprehension.
Interview skills training , including both substantive advice vis-a-vis specific employers, and mastering the "psychodynamics" of the interview process. Note: This training should only be requested when you have been invited to an actual job interview.
Evaluating competing job offers and negotiating the terms of employment.
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Individual counseling is available in person or by telephone. To make an appointment, or for further information, contact us at:
Attorney Jobs - Thomson West
West Career Counseling for Attorneys
1100 13th Street NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 777-8511
E-mail: west.ajocareercounselor@thomson.com
