Career Advice Lawyers Should Avoid

Career advice is often obvious: arrive on time for interviews, prepare for the role, ask the interviewer questions, etc. But there are a few tips that do NOT apply to lawyers. Conventional wisdom that Bay Area lawyers should avoid:

1. “Add a career objective on your resume.” Your resume should be 2 pages long tops (you can have a representative matters/deal sheet if you have more details to include), so don’t waste valuable real estate at the very top on a career objective. Your objective should be completely obvious by a 2 second skim of your resume, and if it’s not, you need to redo your resume.
2. “Don’t call yourself an expert.” This one mystifies me. Employers I work with usually tell me to find them a subject matter expert. If they say they need a generalist, they still want an attorney with expertise in general commercial/corporate/IP matters. It is definitely OK to say you have expertise or are an expert in your area. That’s how lawyers get hired.
3. “Wear a suit.” This edict only applies to top tier law firms (and I suspect this will change within a few years). For in-house jobs, business casual is sufficient. Employers want lawyers to be approachable, and wearing a suit will deter clients.