This week’s job is another in-house position with one of Lateral Link’s financial services clients. In January, Lateral Link placed several attorneys in-house at international companies in the U.S. and Asia. If you are currently employed at a law firm and looking to make the jump in-house, apply to become a member of Lateral Link at www.laterallink.com.

Position: ISDA Attorney

Location: New York, NY

Description: Major investment bank seeks an ISDA Negotiator with at least 5 years experience in negotiating ISDA Schedules, Credit Support Annexes, Contracts for Differences Annexes, guaranties and ancillary documents. Ideal candidate will have previous investment bank experience. Must have outstanding credentials.

If you are interested in this position, please contact T.J. Duane at tjduane@laterallink.com. If you are a current Lateral Link Member, please see Position #5873 and contact your personal search consultant for more information.

Associate - ISDA Negotiator [Lateral Link]

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

Times are difficult for 3Ls. The legal economy is in shambles. Their debts are about to come due, and they have no reasonable opportunities for legal employment. Many third years have resorted to cold, unsolicited résumé dumps, hoping against hope that they’ll get lucky.

There is a lot of pressure on 3Ls. But handling enormous pressure is an important skill for would-be attorneys. One 3L who faced this employment pressure totally collapsed. Unfortunately for the 3L, that collapse is preserved over email.

The situation started innocently enough. The unidentified 3L sent in a résumé and cover letter to Webster & Associates LLC, looking for legal work. The letter was inartfully addressed to “Esteemed Mr. Webster, Partner:”

I know, you’re thinking that this 3L thought he was addressing Partner Emeritus instead of a regular person. But that’s not really the problem here.

The problem is that Webster & Associates is not a law firm; it’s a company run by a man named Bruce Webster that specializes in IT consulting. Two seconds on the Webster & Associates website would have revealed this fact.

Webster sent the job seeker back an — admittedly curt — response. And then things got out of hand.

Many job seekers would love to work as lawyers for the federal government but haven’t had luck landing a position. Openings for attorneys on USAJOBS attract hundreds of applicants. In light of massive law-firm layoffs and the relative stability of government employment, high demand for federal jobs is unsurprising. You have to be a positively brilliant lawyer to land a government gig these days.

Or not. If you’ve applied to the U.S. Department of Justice without success, ask yourself: Do I have a normal or above-normal IQ?

If you do, you might be… overqualified. From a Justice Department job posting (emphasis added):

The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine.

Quips former DOJ lawyer Ty Clevenger: “Having worked there, I think CRD has plenty of mentally retarded lawyers already. Mostly in supervisory positions.”

Says another tipster who brought this to our attention: “I understand how you can have a few missing limbs or be partially paralyzed and still be a trial lawyer, but someone with an IQ less than 70?!?!!?”

Recruiting mentally retarded lawyers to litigate civil rights cases for the DOJ may take the expression “good enough for government work” too far. But, in fairness, there is a caveat to all of this….

If you’re in the northeast and not enjoying today’s frigid temperatures, consider the latest Job of the Week. It’s a position for someone who wants to head to Florida and help structure the estates of all those other people heading to Florida (aka the T&E jackpot). With fine white sand beaches, beautiful sunsets and pina coladas, who could ask for anything more?

Position: Trusts and Estates Attorney

Location: Sarasota, FL

Description: A prestigious Florida firm is looking for a Trusts and Estates attorney with 3-5 years experience drafting estate plans in Florida. Interested candidates must be a member of the Florida Bar, and must have an LL.M. in Tax or Estate Planning. Experience with Form 706 Estate Tax returns is required, and the ability to handle probate administration is also a plus. This firm is looking for someone who is community oriented, a team player and a good personality fit for the firm’s sophisticated Estate Planning practice group.

If you are interested in this position, please contact Scott Hodes, the newest member of the Lateral Link team, at shodes@laterallink.com. Scott handles attorney placement for the Florida market.

Lateral Link is actively hiring additional attorney recruiters with prior recruiting experience. If you are qualified and interested, please contact Michael Allen at mallen@laterallink.com.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

Over the weekend — yes, we often publish over the weekend, so do check in with us — we wrote about the happy story of Jeffrey Fenster. Fenster, a 29-year-old lawyer who previously worked for a short time at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, was recently selected by Governor David Paterson to serve as executive director of the Workers’ Compensation Board of New York State.

In the comments, a number of you wondered how Fenster landed this gig, despite what one former board commissioner described as “absolutely no administrative experience” and “no experience in workers’ comp or labor law.” One commenter speculated that Fenster might have been helped by Martin Minkowitz, a retired Stroock partner and expert in workers’ compensation law (which is what the New York Times hinted at).

As it turns out, it appears that Fenster was helped by connections — but not through Stroock or Marty Minkowitz.

Position: Corporate and securities attorney

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Description: Unique opportunity at a West Los Angeles firm that functions as the principal in-house counsel for an incredibly sophisticated family office. This position is for an experienced corporate and securities attorney who possesses extensive experience in the regulatory, compliance, and enforcement issues confronted by participants in the securities markets. Candidates must have sound business ethics and substantial experience in representing brokerage firms, investment advisors and/or hedge funds. The firm currently has four attorneys, all with significant experience working on investment partnerships, commercial and industrial real estate projects, and other business transactions.

The candidate should have 10+ years of quality legal experience, preferably at an Am Law 100 law firm, exhibiting a progression of responsibility and leadership and/or in an in-house position at a firm that participates in the securities markets. Candidate must show initiative in pursuing appropriate timely and effective solutions to complex issues and business strategies. No book of business is necessary.

For more information about this position, please contact Betsy Sandler at bsandler@laterallink.com. If you are a Lateral Link member, please see Position #5812 on the Lateral Link site. If you are not a Lateral Link member, you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

What do you say to a recent law-school graduate?

— The Economist

If you are a federal law clerk, now is the time to start thinking about your next career move. Law firm positions for clerks finishing up in fall 2010 are filling up fast, and if you are among this group, this Job of the Week is for you.

Position: Litigation Associate

Location: New York, DC, LA or Chicago

Bonus: These positions qualify for Lateral Link’s $10,000 placement bonus.

Description: Several top firms (including prominent national firms and several NY boutiques) have engaged Lateral Link to identify judicial clerks to join their associate ranks. Clerks should have previous big firm experience and be coming from a federal clerkship. Outstanding academic credentials.

If you are currently clerking, please sign up for Lateral Link at www.laterallink.com, and a Lateral Link search consultant will contact you about these positions. If you are currently a Lateral Link member, please view Position #5808 and request to be contacted by your personal search consultant.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

Welcome to the next article in our series of monthly Ask the Experts Career Development posts, brought to you by the ATL Career Center.  Just a reminder that previous Career Development articles, as well as career coaching information, are available in the Resources section of the Career Center.  

This week, we spoke with Jordan Abshire, Managing Director at Lateral Link who works with partner and associate candidates on law firm and in-house searches in Washington D.C and the Southeast.  We asked Jordan for advice on networking – what it is, how it works, and why you need to do it even if you are not actively looking for a new job.  

If the economic downturn has taught attorneys anything, it is that meeting the annual billable hours requirement no longer guarantees any kind of real job security.  Networking is more crucial than ever for attorneys who want to stay in control of their career development.

Q: Why do so many people cringe when they think about networking?

Find out the answer, plus more, after the jump.

We know that many law schools fudge their “employed upon graduation” statistics for the benefit of their U.S. News ranking. But I wonder what it would like if law schools reported their “still employed five years after graduation” numbers. Something tells me it wouldn’t look good.

One well credentialed top law school graduate has been reduced to looking for work on Craigslist. I’m sure he’s not alone:

Ivy League Honors Grad with Substantial Experience Seeking Work (Upper East Side)

Graduate of top-5 law school with big firm and federal government experience seeking employment, preferably full-time but also will consider contract, per diem and part-time work. I have experience in litigation, arbitration, regulatory and administrative matters, among other areas. Will provide resume upon request. I look forward to your inquiries.

Random guess, this guy or girl graduated from Columbia, right? The add says “top-5,” instead of top-3. But it’s an Ivy. Columbia is the only school that fits the bill, right? (Yes, I got every logic game question right on the LSAT.)

In any event, wouldn’t it be interesting to see how many law school graduates are still employed as attorneys five to seven years after graduation? Because people who go to law school aren’t just looking for a job, they’re looking for a career. It’d be great to see how many people actually find a career in the law, broken down for different schools.

As for this particular Criagslist poster, I don’t know what to say. It’s tough all over.

Ivy League Honors Grad with Substantial Experience Seeking Work [Craigslist]

It’s been a while since we debated which class of associates got screwed over the most because of the global economic meltdown. Is it the class of 2009? That was the class who enjoyed the first round of (sometimes indefinite) incoming first year deferrals. Maybe you think the class of 2010 is most screwed? That class ran into reduced (or canceled) summer programs, fewer hiring opportunities, and reduced salaries.

I don’t think the class of 2011 qualifies. Those people have had every opportunity to read the writing on the wall and adjust accordingly.

But what about the class of 2008? Remember them? That’s the class where a lot of people were just straight up fired. Some of those people saw their careers end before they even began. The website Visualize Law has a very interesting chart about what happened to people in the class of 2008.

Let’s take a look after the jump.

Happy New Year! Let’s put the bad news of 2009 behind us and get things back on track by getting all those bankrupt companies back in the black. The first Job of the Week for 2010 is for a junior attorney to work on front-page bankruptcies at one of the most prominent firms in the country. If you are not a bankruptcy attorney, don’t worry, because Lateral Link has hundreds of law firm and in-house positions at all levels and practice areas. You can apply to join the Lateral Link attorney network at www.laterallink.com.

Position: Bankruptcy Associate

Location: New York, NY

Bonus: This position qualifies for Lateral Link’s $10,000 placement bonus.

Description: Top firm is seeking a junior bankruptcy attorney. Must be currently employed, have 2 to 3 years of experience from another top 25 firm and have a JD from a top 10 law school (this firm can be choosy).

For more information about this position, please view Position #5773 on Lateral Link or you can contact your personal search consultant. Also, with the market picking up, Lateral Link is actively hiring additional attorney recruiters with prior recruiting experience. If you are qualified and interested, please contact Michael Allen at mallen@laterallink.com.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

Career Cast has compiled a list of the Top 200 Jobs for 2010. Here’s how the Career Cast came up with its (totally arbitrary) first to worst rankings:

How does Jobs Rated determine which professions rank better than others? Data on each job is broken down into five key categories: Physical Demands, Work Environment, Income, Stress and Hiring Outlook. Jobs receive a score in each individual category, and when these are added together, the career with the best overall score is ranked 1st, while the one with the worst overall score is ranked 200th.

The number one job to have in 2010? Actuary! Wow, I almost fell asleep while I was writing that word.

The top ten jobs are … wait a minute, what do you care? Let’s skip all the way down to where “attorney” comes it.

Attorney is actually well outside the top ten. Let’s take a short break while I rappel down the list to find the legal profession.

If Kanye West talked about this past fall recruiting season, he’d probably say: “Biglaw doesn’t care about the NALP people.” This fall, we saw firms give the suggested 45-day open offer period an extended middle finger. Harvard Law School’s career services dean had to lead a revolt against Sullivan & Cromwell. I even suggested that law students should try ignoring NALP, just like the big firms did.

Apparently, NALP isn’t going to take this industry-wide disrespect lying down. They’ve formed a commission! The commission is writing a report! And, by golly, we’re going to get some real, draconian … guidelines, worth at least the paper they’re printed on. Am Law Daily reports:

Among the recommendations, according to three sources familiar with the report: Setting a date, likely sometime in late fall, before which firms would be prohibited from making offers to prospective summers. That proposed structure would replace the current system, under which firms can make offers to prospective summer associates at any time after interviewing them and then must leave those offers open for 45 days.

Respect NALP’s authority!

Look, they have to try something. Because right now nobody is happy with fall recruiting.

While layoffs dominated the law firm landscape in 2009, the worst of the downsizing seems to be behind us.  But it looks like 2010 will be bringing major changes to compensation structures at law firms.  Check out the ATL Career Center, powered by Lateral Link , for the latest information about which firms are moving away from lockstep compensation and how they are doing it.  In the last week, we have updated the firm snapshots for Kramer Levin, Mayer Brown, Kirkland & Ellis, Weil Gotshal, Cravath, Quinn Emanuel, Hogan & Hartson, Wachtell Lipton, K&L Gates, Cadwalader, Akin Gump, and Jones Day. 

Below are a few of the latest updates from the Career Center’s firm snapshots:

•   This firm announced it would be moving to a hybrid lockstep compensation structure.  Salaries will no longer be tied to seniority level, but based on a combination of objective and subjective factors.

•   This firm’s new compensation structure regroups associates into three seniority levels rather than class years.  Under the new plan, the firm will also withhold 15% of associates’ salaries until a year-end performance review. 

•   This firm is phasing in a new compensation structure over the next two years in which a larger percentage of each attorney’s total compensation will be in the form of individualized bonuses.

Use the Career Center’s firm snapshots and comparison tool to learn about other bonus news at firms around the country.  And as always, we encourage to send information about your law firm experience to careercenter@abovethelaw.com.

Yesterday we asked if lateral hiring is picking up, and here is yet another Job of the Week to suggest that it is. To further confirm this, Lateral Link tells us they have five lateral associates starting at big law positions next week (filling several recent Jobs of the Week). If you’re thinking of making a move, head over to www.laterallink.com, or give your Lateral Link personal search consultant a call to see what is out there.

Position: Fund Formation Attorney

Location: New York, NY

Bonus: This position qualifies for Lateral Link’s $10,000 placement bonus.

Description: Large international firm is seeking a mid-level corporate associate with fund formation and hedge fund experience. The attorney should have 2-4 years of relevant experience, and some private equity deal experience is required.

If you are a Lateral Link member, please see Position #5695 on the Lateral Link site. If you are not a Lateral Link member, you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings

Every time a firm cuts pay or does something that associates perceive as crappy, people hop on Above the Law and claim that they will be leaving said firm at the earliest opportunity.

Then other, meaner commenters hop on and say: “Leave? You can’t leave. Nobody is hiring. Mwahahahahahaha.” After reading those comments, presumably the associates who want to leave go home, cry, and take a Xanax.

But when we speak to recruiters, here and there, they report that the lateral market is picking up. According to The Recorder, recruiters expect that things will pick up even more in the New Year:

After a rough 2009 for most firms, partners are busy behind the scenes checking out their options, according to a couple of recruiters we checked in with.

“Anybody who has been waiting to make a move will be ready once they know where the numbers are,” said recruiter Stacy Miller Azcarate. “I have so many people who have said, ‘I’m going to call you in January.’”

Yay?

Who is planning on moving? Details after the jump.

[Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

Hello from Russia! I am Yuliya Vinokurova, Kinney Recruiting’s resident recruiter in Russia. Yes, Russia is not really Asia of course, but let’s call it the Eurasia Chronicles for a day. While ensconced in my nicely warmed office in St. Petersburg (I split time between St. Petersburg, Moscow and Miami), I am pleased to be able to inform our readership that the market in Russia for lateral associates has finally begun to thaw, at least a little bit, with a few firms now hiring (mostly mid-level US cap markets associates, fluent in Russian). We now have several urgent US associate needs in Moscow. This is a remarkable development and the suddenness of it is a bit surprising to me, considering there were practically no US associate openings as recent as one month ago. For about 15 months there has been very little lateral US associate movement in the Russian legal market, while many firms had layoffs here (as recently as summer ‘08, most biglaw firms in Moscow had urgent needs for US and UK background associates, which they then promptly cancelled).

Although most US and UK firms in Moscow are still not hiring and likely will not be for some time, there are four of our client firms who have asked us to provide candidates just in the last week. In fact, ironically, Evan and Robert came across one of the new openings while in NYC yesterday meeting with management of one of our client firms there, regarding their HK / China expansion. Their Moscow office came up in the meeting, due to its recent success and new hiring needs. Their Moscow 4 to 7 year US associate opening is so new that we are the first recruiting firm to hear about it and they are just going to leave it with us for a while, expecting that we can, as usual, deliver a handful of great candidates in the next week or two and help them start the interview process in early January, after the holidays.

***More after the jump.

Happy Holidays! The new year is just around the corner — might that mean a new job? After that bonus check clears, many associates step up their job searches.

Here’s one opportunity for your consideration, from our friends over at Lateral Link.

Position: IP Associate (EE)

Location: Washington, DC

Bonus: This position qualifies for Lateral Link’s $10,000 placement bonus.

Description: The Washington, DC office of a prominent international firm is seeking an intellectual property associate with an electrical engineering background. The attorney should have 2-5 years of experience from another top firm and an electrical engineering degree.

If you are a Lateral Link member, please see Position #5705 on the Lateral Link site. If you are not a Lateral Link member, you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com. You may also contact Jordan Abshire at jabshire@laterallink.com for more details on the position.

Earlier: Prior Job of the Week listings