The Best Friends at the Bar book series is part of a mentoring program for young lawyers that I founded after I retired from law practice in 2006. The early books focus on the challenges for women lawyers, and the later books were written with all young lawyers in mind.

My most recent book is New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers. Here is what readers are saying about it.

“You have offered young lawyers a steady hand as they navigate the sometimes treacherous waters between graduation and a fulfilling career. You have touched real lives, real young attorneys who have walked into their first firms or courtrooms with a little more confidence because of the practical advice you have shared.”

“New Lawyer Launch is a handbook for the moment law school leaves off and real professional life begins. The transition from law school to professional practice is one of the most disorienting career shifts in any profession, and the handbook addresses it with foundational, timeless advice from contributors with strong mentorship backgrounds.”

“New Lawyer Launch matters for the first year associate sitting alone in an office at nine in the evening wondering if he or she is doing everything wrong. It matters to the law student about to cross the stage and step into a profession that gave them no roadmap for what comes next. And it matters to every young attorney who has ever needed a mentor and did not know where to find one.”

So, if you think you would benefit from that kind of help, I hope you get your hands on the book sooner rather than later. Some of you are getting ready to cross that law school graduation stage and others of you are entry-level lawyers in firms or government or corporate settings and feeling insecure about how to proceed successfully in a demanding profession. For others, gifting this book to a young lawyer is sure to be appreciated.

You never will regret becoming a Best Friend at the Bar and helping yourself or another young lawyer avoid the pitfalls of law practice while setting a strong foundation for a successful and satisfying career in the law.

What Millennial Lawyers Want: A Bridge from the Past to the Future of Law Practice is also very popular with young lawyers today, including Gen Z lawyers. That book includes lessons learned from my own mentor and challenge questions about how those lessons relate to your own experiences.

My books are available from Amazon or from the publisher on the Best Friends at the Bar website at www.bestfriendsatthebar.com.

That approach has many other applications in our lives in these uncertain times. So many people, including many of you young lawyers, are upset, angered, and threatened by the state of the world these days. They wake up every morning to news outlets reporting the dismal state of events, and they fuel their upset, angered and threatened minds without finding many things to change that outlook for the remainder of the day.

I interface with young lawyers a lot, and I know how worried many of you are about your futures right now. So many of you are worried about your professional futures in a country where the rule of law is being challenged on a daily basis, where the Department of Justice has been decimated, where the Executive Branch is attacking law firms and judges, where lawyers are losing jobs in our federal government in record numbers, and where job insecurity could easily spread to the private sector. Many of you accrued serious debt to attend law school, and now the state of the economy does not hold very good news for the present or the future. It is a lot, and it is a tough time to be starting a career.

You must find ways to deal with these difficult times. You may need help and be willing to ask for it, or you may be in a position to help others in despair. Helping others is the gift you give yourself, and these days we all could use a little something tied up with a big red bow to get through the day.

Most important of all, be good to yourself. It may be challenging for you right now, but you are up to the challenge. You have proven yourself in so many ways that you need to remember, and law school has prepared you to get up and try again. Your education and your training as critical thinkers will become very important during these trying times to help put things in perspective and to keep you on steady ground. Lawyers are problem solvers, and we know that there are many different ways to look at a set of even bad facts and fashion a positive response. Use your unique skills to get through the tough times.

We may be in for the long haul, so pace ourselves. You want to be ready to grab the first brass ring of opportunity that comes your way when the clouds part. And you can’t do that by staring at the ground.

So, I say to you, “What’s good today?” I am confident you can find something.

However, there are places where you do not want to be listened to. Especially if you are a lawyer.

Here’s a case in point I never will forget that occurred while I was traveling on the train between DC and Philadelphia on the way to a business meeting. I boarded early, and the seat next to me was taken later by an attractive young woman. We settled in, and, as I was reviewing my notes for my meeting, she pulled out her phone and made a call. We were not in the Quiet Car, so that was fair play.

However, the call lasted a long time, and from her end of the conversation, it became clear to me that she was a lawyer speaking to her client in Australia. By the time she hung up, I knew a lot about her, including the name of her firm, the name of her client, and the subject of her representation. I even knew the name of the opposing party in the dispute and the strategy she and her firm intended to put forth in handling the dispute.

As a fellow lawyer, I was shocked. As she ended the call and relaxed into her ride, she addressed me and said, “I hope you didn’t mind me making the call.” I hesitated a moment, tempted to take the easy way out, but then I responded, “Oh, yes”, I did mind. You see, I also am a lawyer, and what I just overheard runs contrary to everything I have learned about the discretion required of lawyers when it comes to client information.” I then described all that I knew from her conversation. I also told her that I was familiar with her excellent law firm in Philadelphia and some of the lawyers there. Lawyers who would not be pleased to hear about what I had witnessed. But I also made certain to tell her that those lawyers never would hear about it from me.

In case you are wondering, I knew I was taking a risk in being honest and candid with this young lawyer. She could easily have become defensive and lashed out at me, making a bad situation even worse. However, I also knew that she needed some guidance before she found herself in a world of hurt.

In my book, New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers, I include a story shared by one of my contributors. That very senior lawyer happened to read in the newspaper one morning about a young woman lawyer from his firm who had been arrested for disturbing the peace at a local dive bar. When he later confronted her about it, she responded with something to the effect that she was on her “personal time.” His response went something like this: “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PERSONAL TIME FOR LAWYERS IN PUBLIC!”

The moral of these stories is that you don’t stop being a lawyer just because you change into casual clothes or you can’t wait to call your client in private. You are always a lawyer, and you need to act like it in every setting. You are subject to a Code of Conduct and Ethical Considerations. If you want to go crazy, do it in a private setting. You are not a free agent who can just go with the flow and risk harm to yourself and others.

Do not put yourself in positions like this. There are those who will delight in harming you. And your career hangs in the balance.

Because you never know who is listening and watching.

When I think of this model of law practice, my thoughts go immediately to the pressures facing women lawyers with young children. That can be a very demanding combination in a traditional law firm with the constraints of high billable hours and face time.

So when I saw a Reuters article from 2021 about the virtual firm Scale LLP, it got my attention. That firm is not exclusively for women lawyers, but the endorsements from the women there are impressive. Although I had highlighted virtual law practice as an option for women lawyers in my 2012 book “The New Balance for Today’s Woman Lawyer, my interest also may have been spiked by my younger self saying, “Why wasn’t that around for me so many years ago?” But that is old news.

Speaking of old news, I think that we all can agree that the benefits of maternity leave — and most recently parental leave — and positive reentry policies at traditional law firms can also be considered old news today as the result of the enactment of federal legislation and market place competition among firms for the best talent.

The real problem that I see today for lawyer/mothers of young children is that very talented women lawyers, who meet that description, find themselves “parked” in of counsel and salary partnership positions that benefit the law firm economically but do not provide much expectation for upward mobility. Ask yourself what lawyer/mother of young children has much time for client development, and I think you will get the picture.

As stated in the Reuters article, “It’s hardly news that Big Law tends to be all-consuming. But is it possible to have a sophisticated, high-end private practice — and a life outside of work? It’s practically the holy grail of the legal profession.” Evidence of that is the the large number of virtual law firms today.

My personal experience with virtual firms, is limited to Potomac Law Group, founded by a DC lawyer, who I spoke with years ago, shortly after he formed the firm and at a time when I was developing my Best Friends at the Bar project, which was devoted solely to women lawyers in those days. I was very impressed with what I heard from him about the benefits of virtual practice for lawyer moms, and the success of his venture speaks for itself. Years later, when my husband left BigLaw and formed his own firm, referrals from a virtual firm also proved very beneficial and yielded interesting work for a seasoned litigator.

For a definition of how typical virtual firms operate, see a discussion of those details in the Reuters article. One woman lawyer describes the benefits as the “flexibility of a small firm or solo shop, but with a network of experienced and accomplished attorneys for back-up as needed.” And the Scale LLP website includes the description “A National Law Firm For Experienced Women Lawyers” and endorsements by women lawyers there like “Bet on yourself: You will be surprised at how happy you are when you do” and “Independence plus a national team.”

If you are looking for an alternative to traditional law firm practice, you may want to check this out. A virtual law firm may be for you.

Non-equity partnership has been trending for quite some time now. Most of the reasons behind adoption of this new class of partners result from evolving needs of law firms and individual lawyers alike.

For example, if the services that a junior lawyer provides to firm clients are viewed as very important, it makes sense for that lawyer to receive additional recognition and status even though he or she may not be viewed as ready to share in profits. It is good for retention, and it also benefits the firm to be able to call non-equity lawyers “partners” because it justifies billing those lawyers out at higher rates and it benefits the individual lawyer to be called “partner” when building a book of business. What would not benefit the firm or the junior lawyer is advancing high performing junior lawyers directly to equity partnership without any training on how to promote work and be solely responsible for that work.

The designation of non-equity partner also works for lawyers who enjoy the practice of law BUT have no desire to rise to equity positions due to lack of interest in business generation and the pressure that accompanies it or because their life styles are incompatible with full partnership responsibilities at a given time. It also works for lawyers who come into a firm laterally. Lateral entries get the title of partner while the firm gets the period of time it needs to decide whether those hires are worth the money and appropriate for equity positions.

Of course, like most things, whether non-equity partnership works depends on how well it is both conceived and executed. The status and expectations must be clearly communicated to each non-equity partner, and it is important that non-equity partners know how they are perceived. Most of them want to be on track for equity partnership, and they do not want to be strung along indefinitely for reasons that benefit the firm alone.

It also is critically important that non-equity partners continue to be mentored to build the skills necessary to prepare them for equity positions. Indeed, a spokesperson for Arnold & Porter has highlighted plans for enhanced training and professional development for its new class of partners.

What is most clear is that non-equity partnership is here to stay. Even many of the firms that resisted for so long have come over to recognizing the benefits as different in a changing profession.

And who can argue with that?