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Are you an “Essential Worker”?

With the spread of the coronavirus, restrictions are being placed on all but the “essential workers” in the economy. Healthcare workers and first responders clearly are “essential workers.” But the definition doesn’t end there.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) is responsible for managing risk to critical national infrastructure. This new federal agency – an operational component under the Department of Homeland Security – sprang into existence in November 2018 with the passage of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018.

As noted on its webpage, the Agency has identified the sectors of the economy that are critical for “both public health and safety as well as community well-being.” Those sectors include a robust cross-section of American life:

      • Chemical Sector
      • Commercial Facilities Sector
      • Communications Sector
      • Critical Manufacturing Sector
      • Dams Sector
      • Defense Industrial Base Sector
      • Emergency Services Sector
      • Energy Sector
      • Financial Services Sector
      • Food and Agriculture Sector
      • Government Facilities Sector
      • Healthcare and Public Health Sector
      • Information Technology Sector
      • Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
      • Transportation Systems Sector
      • Water and Wastewater Systems Sector

In short, “essential workers” are those women and men who help keep us alive and safe, especially during times of crisis.

While CISA provides guidance on what constitutes a critical sector of the economy, specific response efforts are “locally executed, State managed, and federally supported,” according to a March 19, 2020 Memorandum. Thus, response efforts will vary from state to state (and possibly from region to region within a state).

It can be a bit humbling to realize that you’re not “essential.” As a lawyer friend of mine observed, “19 years of education, 30 plus years of experience, and I’m still not ‘essential.’” I can relate.

To all the essential workers, thank you for your service.

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Doing Hard Things

Photo by Alessandro Bianchi on Unsplash

Anything worthwhile in life is hard.

Winning a championship. Building a successful business. Nurturing a relationship. Each requires vision, passion, and dedication. Each requires a commitment of time, effort, and resources.

As human beings, we are most content when we are growing and progressing. Doing hard things is the best way to progress. In the end, the reward is worth the effort, even if you fall short of your goal.

I’m happiest when I push myself to achieve. I like having a little bit more to do than I can comfortably get done in a day. It makes me prioritize, focus, and act decisively. At the end of the day, I feel accomplished. When I stop pursuing personal growth, on the other hand, life becomes mundane.

That is why I have chosen to push myself out of my comfort zone.

In February, I learned of an Executive LL.M. program in Litigation Management offered by Baylor Law. The program focuses on the skills necessary to successfully manage a docket of high-volume, high-stakes litigation.

Over 14 months, the candidates take online courses centered on “very legal-specific strategic, analytical, business and cost management skills.” Three times during the program, candidates take a week of classes on-site to supplement online learning.

For six months, I had an internal debate over the merits of enrolling in the program. I came up with many reasons not to enroll – cost, work demands, and uncertainty about the future. Still, I could not escape the gnawing feeling that I need to bring a little turmoil and growth to my life.

It’s much easier to do nothing, so that’s precisely what I did. But representatives from Baylor were persistent, leaving messages for me every few weeks extolling the virtues of the program. The gnawing feeling continued.

After counseling with Rebecca and with trusted friends, I made the plunge last week. I submitted a resume and statement of interest on Thursday, and spoke with an advisor from Baylor and completed my application on Friday. On Saturday, I purchased tickets to travel to the orientation later this week. Classes start on September 23.

I’m excited to conquer this new challenge. I can do hard things.

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5 Tips for Finding a Job (Part 5)

Photo by Steven Wright on Unsplash

No. 5 – Find (or create) an underserved niche that excites you, and become a thought leader in that area.

Lawyers are an odd bunch. We try to distinguish ourselves by copying our peers. We dress alike, we speak the same language (legalese), and we market ourselves indistinguishably, using the same words to extoll our differences that our competitors use to describe themselves.

And then we wonder why prospective employers cannot tell us apart.

New graduates don’t have a monopoly on this problem. Law firms have difficulty articulating how they differ from their competitors in a way that resonates with their target clientele. Virtually every law firm web site describes its practice areas using the same words. And they all do “top quality work” for “competitive prices.”

If you want to stand out, you need to look and sound different from your competition. You must think differently about what you do and about what you want to do.

You are not limited to describing your practice in the standard vernacular. Find your own niche. Create your own practice area. Combine your interests – including interests outside of the law – and be the first one to stake your claim to that legal territory.

For example, if you are a new lawyer who wants to practice plaintiff’s personal injury law in the Phoenix metropolitan area (where I practice), you must go to the end of the line where thousands of “experienced, aggressive” lawyers are practicing ahead of you. You are in direct competition with each one of them.

Instead of fighting the crowd, find an underserved segment of the market. The market can be segmented into a limitless area of needs. Your market segment might be based on geography, industry, economic status, cultural background, or other demographic distinction. It might be tied to developing trends (e.g., legal analytics), new laws (GDPR, anyone?), or emerging industries (cloud computing).

Once you have chosen your niche, ask yourself what keeps your target clients up at night. Identify what your prospective clients need, and then figure out how to meet those needs.

Many people complain that there are “too many” lawyers. A number of years ago I participated in a marketing webinar that debunked this notion and changed the way I think about marketing myself.

The speaker was a seasoned lawyer who had practiced for more than 40 years. He identified the array of federal laws that had been enacted in the time that he had been practicing law. The list was stunning: Title VII, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Environmental Protection Act, Obamacare, Family and Medical Leave Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Clean Air Act, Defend Trade Secrets Act, and dozens of other pieces of legislation. Many of the acts also have state equivalents.

Each of those acts creates a confusing maze that organizations and individuals must learn to navigate. Each of the acts creates a ready-made pool of clients for savvy lawyers who can confidently speak the language and give meaningful answers to questions. Each gives you an opportunity to create a niche, become an expert in the niche you created, and distinguish yourself from the competition.

As long as legislatures keep passing laws, people will need smart lawyers to help them avoid legal quagmires. Be that lawyer. Find the need, and figure out how to meet it. Then go to the head of the line, market yourself as an expert, and help your client navigate through the legal maze.

(Last in a series)

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5 Tips for Finding a Job (Part 4)

No. 4: Seek out a mentor to help you on your career path.

The best way to land a job is through a personal referral. Yes, you can find a job by flooding the market with unsolicited resumes or by applying for every opening that comes available. But when you do so, you become part of the nameless, faceless crowd vying for a position.

A personal referral, on the other hand, automatically distinguishes you from the competition and places you in the “second review” pile of resumes. A personal referral is a differentiator that can help you along the pathway to professional success.

Working with a mentor can help you generate personal referrals. Mentors come from many different stations of life. Your mentor might be a professor, a friend’s parent, a work colleague, a neighbor, a fellow congregant, or a former classmate. You might even reach out to someone you admire from a distance.

How do you convince someone to be your mentor? The answer is simple: Ask. Most people are willing to give meaningful advice if you will ask.

Ask your mentor for referrals for your job search. Does he know anyone who is hiring? Ask for recommendations and career advice. What groups and associations should you join? Ask about your preferred job niche. How can you distinguish yourself in that niche? Ask for advice, then follow through on that advice.

Several years ago, I received an unsolicited email from a woman who was a third-year law student in another state. She advised that she was interested in practicing employment law in Phoenix and referenced another lawyer in town – a graduate of her alma mater – who had suggested that I might be able to give her some guidance on the job market.

Note that she did not ask me for a job, she asked me for advice.

I respect the attorney who had given her my name. I was flattered that this student thought that I could give her meaningful assistance in her job hunt. And I was impressed that she had formulated a career plan and that was taken the initiative to implement her plan.

We agreed to meet the next time she was in town. I explained that my firm did not have any job openings at that time, but agreed that we could talk about the job market and general advice for a job search.

When we met a few weeks later, I was impressed with her qualifications. She was smart, articulate, and outgoing. She presented herself well and asked good questions. She was receptive to my comments and suggestions for her job hunt.

She followed up with me several weeks later. By then, we were getting busier at the office. My partners and I realized that we could use an associate shortly. We invited her in for a second meeting so that she could meet some of my partners. They were as impressed with her as I was.

Several months after our first meeting, we made her a job offer. Fortunately, she accepted. She has become an invaluable member of our team. And she has made me look good many times over.

I have tried to be a good mentor to her. I involve her with my cases whenever possible. We regularly meet to discuss litigation strategy and skills. She is not relegated to writing research memos and reviewing stacks of documents, but instead regularly meets with clients, argues in court, and handles her own cases.

We have developed a genuine friendship and respect for one another. But none of this would have happened if she had not taken the initiative to reach out and ask me for advice.

Seek out a mentor who can help you on your career path. You’ll be glad that you did.

(To be continued)