Rabbi-Turned-Lawyer Writes of 2-Year Job Search at ‘Laid Off and Looking’ Blog
A former rabbi who graduated from law school in 1998 at the age of 50 has endured a frustrating job search.
The lawyer, Dan Zoloth Dorfman, was laid off from a Chicago law firm in September 2006 and has been looking for work ever since. He is working on temporary assignments and is now considering a job in another city or outside the law, he writes on a new Wall Street Journal blog, Laid Off and Looking.
“For the last two and a half years, I have networked like mad, called or e-mailed everyone I know (or so it seems), consumed gallons of coffee with friends and friends of friends, remained active in bar committees and legal organizations, and answered every ad for a commercial litigator I have seen on job sites whose similar names have blurred together,” Dorfman writes.
“I was cautioned, firms we call Big Law do not readily see beyond the four corners of your application papers and resume,” he says. “Recently, I told one recruiter I was willing to come into a firm as a less-senior associate than my years since graduation indicated. Her response was not encouraging. Most firms, she said, won’t hire on those terms because it creates dissension and bad feeling among the associates.”
The ABA Journal profiled seven other lawyers looking for work in the January issue.
Hat tip to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
