Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

My role as a recruiter for corporate law departments is pretty straightforward: Bring specifically qualified candidates to bear, assess culture fit, and provide a short list of the best options. We are usually working at the 7-plus years out of law school level, and the winners almost always arrive with a combination of “Big Law” firm teeth cutting and time spent in-house.  

Nonetheless, I still hear clients talk about learning curves and the energy it often takes to bring any new lawyer into the fold. Sometimes a new hire has to unlearn prior habits. In those law departments that truly embrace technology, process and innovation, the word “retrain” has come into play.  

Very few law departments develop entry-level talent. Interestingly, the best example of one doing so goes back about 20 years. The old New Jersey-based AT&T (not the AT&T of today that is Ameritech renamed), had a robust summer associate program and actually trained its own lawyers. It was a moment in time when one particular but significant law department decided that in-house practice was sufficiently different versus law firm practice and should be treated as a fully other path.

Now a new, small, adventurous nonprofit legal entity is taking a swing at the law department talent pipeline bat. It's a law school-driven enterprise, which makes sense, as many law schools are under tremendous pressure to give students options beyond law firm summer gigs that are increasingly hard for many of their students to land. In addition to which, this generation of law students is more keenly aware of practice options other than law firms, and some of the better students are reluctant to follow the traditional path even when it's available to them.

The effort is called “Institute for the Future of Law Practice” which, in plain English, is a highly structured and well thought through law student internship program. Two of my client companies, unrelated to our work for them, are participants. I also disclose that I am friends with one of the program organizers, and so I have invited other clients of mine to an informational gathering taking place on Sept. 12. Follow this link for details on that event. I have no skin in the game. In my role here as a career advice columnist, I simply suggest it's a development worth watching. It's interesting! And if you are a general counsel, it may be worth investigating the value of this for your department. I wonder if, in 10 years, I'll be recruiting candidates who cut their teeth as a law department intern and not as a junior law firm attorney.