Associate Blogs

Whether comparing lawyers to traffic cones or writing about getting bumped to first class after flying to meet a witness, last summer four WilmerHale associates provided a humorous and honest look into large law firm life to assist in the sometimes nerve-wracking recruitment process through blogs, or online journals, on wilmerhale.com. The blogs were a success, often serving as the topic of conversation at candidate interviews.

It all began when WilmerHale's Legal Personnel and Recruiting Department proposed the launch of the blog series that would appear on the Careers section of the firm’s website. The experimental tool—perhaps the first for a United States law firm—would give recruits a chance to peer into the lives of four associates, and perhaps envision their own professional futures.

"Our past recruits found it very tough to distinguish between large law firms,” says Legal Personnel and Recruiting Communications Manager Heather Hayes. “What they wanted most of all from our website was more personalized and less generic information about life at WilmerHale. The medium of the blog seemed to be the perfect vehicle for this type of communication."

In August, associates in each of the New York, Palo Alto, Washington, DC and Boston offices began sharing their thoughts and revealing the ins and outs of their daily lives—both at the firm and outside the office—through their blogs.

“We wanted good representation across the firm’s US offices,” explains Hayes of the four bloggers. “We also wanted to make sure recruits were hearing from associates working in different practices who had been involved in the recruiting process.”

Though the four associates enthusiastically accepted their online assignment, none had any prior experience with blogging.

“My initial reaction was that it was a great idea,” says Ross Firsenbaum, a litigation attorney. “Recruiting is essential to a firm’s success, and even to my own professional development. Once I said yes, however, I got nervous and thought ‘wait a second, I’ve never blogged before.’”

But Firsenbaum’s nerves didn’t take over, and he wrote candidly. “I think I found a couple additional gray hairs on my head this week,” he wrote in an entry. “Maybe it's the multiple briefs and depositions coming up, or maybe it's more mental. Perhaps it's the arrival of the new first-year class, which makes me, gulp, a fourth-year.”

And, in addition to helping the firm with recruitment, the blogging experience gave the four associates a chance to reflect on their own, often hectic, lives.

“Looking back at my entries, I thought: ‘wow, all the different things I’ve done, all the cases I’ve worked on, the rich experiences and varied things I’ve gotten to do.’ You don’t always recognize those things going along day to day,” says Anne McLaughlin, a member of the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department.

Chambers, a securities attorney, agrees. “It was a great opportunity to reflect on my experiences at WilmerHale, and inject a small amount of humor into my entries.” Chambers notes that, along with acknowledgement from candidates who read his blog, he received some “good-natured ribbing” from his WilmerHale colleagues.

“The majority of our candidates request additional follow up from associates; they really want to know about work-life balance at the firm, and the interview process is not always conducive to asking those very candid questions about associate life,” says Legal Recruitment Coordinator Kimberly Deal. “It’s great that they can easily go to the website to find real stories about working with clients and coworkers, and balancing that with the attorneys’ personal lives as well.”

Last year’s associate blogs boasted impressive readership statistics: between August and November 2008, they were viewed more than 20,000 times.

Look for our 2009 associate blogs starting this July!