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Pink Slip Blues

What to do if the recession costs you your job.

More from CBA PracticeLink and National For more articles and tips on career change, check out the CBA PracticeLink supplement produced in coordination with the January/February 2009 issue of National. cba.org/practicelink/careerchange

Across the country, young lawyers are fearful there’s a pink slip in their future, as law firms downsize in the face of a global recession.

The chopping block has already seen action south of the border. At press time, the “Layoff List” at AmericanLawyer.com listed at least 50 major U.S. and international firms that have laid off lawyers since spring. In Canada, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP had become the first large firm to follow suit, with reports that it was cutting 10 associates and 25 staff, while rumors of more pending layoffs ran rampant on the Canadian legal scene.

How do you improve your chances of making the cut? “Stabilize your position,” advises Allison Wolf, a lawyer coach with Shift Works Strategic Business Coaching in Vancouver. Be a keener, raise your hand, volunteer, write and present in your area of interest. Ask for feedback, and act on it. Take a partner to lunch and build your external network.

“Work really hard to integrate into your firm, so you have a fan base,” says Karen MacKay of Phoenix Legal, a Toronto-based management consulting firm that works with law firms to support lawyers who have been let go. “If you stay in your office and don’t reach out for work and deliver quality, you are at risk.”

If a pink slip lands on your desk, follow these tips from the pros:

• Take time to grieve and feel sorry for yourself — but not too long. Shake yourself up and start calling your mentors for advice.
   
• Negotiate a termination package. “Put those lawyering skills to work in your favour,” advises Wolf.
   
• Nurture your network — 85% of jobs are found through networking.
   
• Engage a professional coach for one or two sessions.
   
• Evaluate your strengths and goals. Act not out of desperation but based on good strategic analysis.
   
• Consider a move to a smaller community where, even during economic downturns, law firms are looking for skilled lawyers and future partners.
   
• Consider legal work outside of private practice — NGOs, legal departments, legal publishers, etc. If it’s not a fit, you can return to private practice after the recession with valuable experience under your belt.
   
• Volunteer, travel or return to school for an LLB. MacKay recalls a client who, after losing his job, went to Thailand to help build a school destroyed by the tsunami. “There‘s not a law firm in the city that will hold it against you that you took a year off.”
  
  — Amy Jo Ehman