Throughout the years we have been practicing in legal recruitment, we often ask lawyers, “Why did you decide to be a lawyer? What is it about your work that you really enjoy and value?”

Some have clear and cogent replies, others… not so much!

Future lawyers are expected to make career choices in their late teens and early twenties. Some know exactly what they always wanted to do…. A business lawyer… a family lawyer… an international human rights lawyer… They have a goal and they are focused and diligent in working towards it.

But in reality, these significant decisions made at a young age, are not so simple and they are subject to the quirks of fate and influences of timing, circumstances, availability of choices, and even serendipity.

So why is it important to have a career strategy?

Once the commitment has been made, and law school is successfully completed, the early decisions taken have a real impact on where you practice, success in your practice, satisfaction in your professional life, how you make decisions when presented with new opportunities and how you pivot when there are circumstances beyond your control.

Some decisions depend on options that are within your control, others not. Academic performance influences admissibility to article at certain firms. Existing economic realities dictate the requirements for recruiting in select practice areas. Personalities and corporate culture sway fit and career progression. Compromises are inevitable, but keeping the strategy in mind will facilitate a recalibration to the preferred path. When you are presented with opportunities to change jobs, take the time to benchmark the new opportunity against your career vision.

When you have embarked on the wrong path or a path that is not consistent with your career strategy, change is possible. There are always options. By leveraging your transferrable skills, by articulating your motivation in a convincing manner, opportunities will appear. If you share your career strategy with mentors, friends, recruiters and decision-makers, horizons will expand and new options will present themselves. When you can articulate your needs and your priorities, you can better benchmark your decisions and ideal career path: making more money, having the recognition of a global law firm, having more work/life balance, having more intellectual challenge, etc.

Careers have dips, and challenges. Changes in personal life might necessitate adjustments in a professional career. But with a clear career strategy, that change can be just as fulfilling as the original path. When considering a professional move, or if a career change is imposed on you, make sure that your premise for change is convincing and authentic.

No matter at what stage you are at in your career, articling student to senior partner, decisions guided by a career strategy are decisions taken with thoughtfulness and judgement, not on a whim that is regretted later and difficult to justify or reverse.

So, what is a career strategy?

Having a career strategy means knowing where you want to go and how you want to get there. It means understanding your diverse options and knowing how action X would lead to outcome Y. You can’t start too early because making decisions and choices have a long-term impact on your career.

For example:

• Criminal law vs corporate, vs human rights law or other areas?Law firm or in-house?
• If a firm, what kind of firm? Bigger firms have prestige, excellent training, sophisticated files and generally pay more. They also have hierarchical structures and more politics. But at smaller firms one can have more responsibility earlier, more impact on a file and work more directly with clients at a young age.
• If in-house, what kind of company? Publicly traded or SME? Do you want to be the GC of a smaller organization at a younger age, where you might be the only lawyer, but with a lot of responsibility, or do you prefer working on a team where you can learn from a mentor?
• Or, do you want to apply your legal education to a business role, either now or in the future?

Along the way, know your options. Have you sought out mentors and advisors who can discuss different career paths and who will be candid in their feedback and suggestions? How well do you know yourself and how you would best fit the options available in a legal career?

It would be absurd to think that every young lawyer follows a straightforward path and knows what he or she wants to do before graduating law school. In that case, it is still important to have mentors with whom to brainstorm. And you will want to make sure you are able to identify when your career path is taking the wrong turn, or not setting you up for long-term success (e.g., perhaps a research role is too solitary, or litigation too adversarial). You will want to be able to ask yourself, are you living your long-term goal or is this a step on the path to achieving it? Is your current job consistent with the path you should be taking?

Visions of a career unfolding reshape themselves when you are confronted by a crossroad or a choice to be made. Any career is never static. Whether it is the world that changes, or a personal change, one can seize the opportunity to grow. And you can choose the way you want to grow; it does not necessarily have to be a complete career shift. Expanding your involvement in a hobby or volunteer association, delving into new educational classes, being more proactive in working on files outside of your usual practice area are some constructive steps to refining your career vision to a new reality.

— Barbara Shore, President and Michel Ohayon, Senior Consultant