Careers
FAQ'S
This section is basically a slightly redacted sample of an FAQ Document that is typically provided to candidates to whom we offer interviews.
Why FAQ's?
What is the current composition of the firm? Who will I be working
for and with?
How many hours a week am I expected to be at work? To bill?
Where will I sit? What are the facilities like?
What will I be doing?
Will I have enough supervision, or will I be left on my own?
What benefits do I get?
What is the technology like at the firm?
What are the expectations with respect to attire?
What are the support staff like?
Can I ever work from home?
What is the environment at the firm really like?
Is the advertised salary negotiable?
Why did the person I am replacing leave?
Are there opportunities for advancement for me in this firm?
I have a great resume. What are the other candidates for this job
like?
What kind of time table are you on? When do you need the new person
to start?
How are cases staffed? How are assignments handed out?
How will I get feedback? Is there a formal review process?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BEING AN ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY AT ITKOWITZ & HARWOOD
11/1/2010
In an effort to make more efficient use of everyone's time at the interview, below I endeavor to pre-answer some of the basic questions an interviewee typically has.
First, a great deal of information about the firm is on our website, www.itkowitz.com -- a description of our areas of practice; a description of our interesting accomplishments, including the full text of approximately 150 decisions on cases we obtained good results on; a list of clients; a list of our publications and links to the text thereof; a list of classes we taught and are teaching; attorney biographies. Therefore, I refer you to the site for that kind of information.
The following are questions that people often ask about the practical realities of daily life in a job, and my answers thereto. Many of these answers were arrived at in collaboration with current associates.
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What is the current composition of the firm? Who will I be working for and with?
The firm consists of the three partners (Jay Itkowitz, Donald Harwood, and I) and currently seven associates, we are contemplating an eighth. Approximately 20 other non-attorney staff work here.
Second interviews will not be conducted by me; they will be conducted by all current associates and Jay Itkowitz. Therefore, if you come back, you will meet everyone that you would be working with and have as long as you like to ask the associates frank questions outside of the presence of the partners.
How many hours a week am I expected to be at work? To bill?
You should expect to be at work, on average, about 47.5 hours per week, depending on what is going on. This average is made up of months when you will work in excess of 47.5 hour weeks, for example, when you are second seating a trial, and months when you take three weeks off, for example, to get married or travel.
There is no "billable hours" requirement. Associates are expected to enter into the time keeping program a record of all their activities while at work. Currently, the associates here have a goal of recording an average of 190 hours per month. Please note that those 190 hours are not "billable" hours, they are hours spent working.
Where will I sit? What are the facilities like?
There is a nice office. I can show it to you on the interview. We occupy most of an 8500 s.f. floor. We are currently renovating the floor. We are upgrading the conference rooms, employee lounge, and the reception area. We are re-designing the center of the space to be more open, to accommodate better workflow.
What will I be doing?
Because you are just out of school, the following are examples of what you will be doing at first:
- Reading extremely long leases and contracts
- Legal research, legal research, legal research
- Routine court appearances, mainly for calendar calls, preliminary conferences, and compliance conferences
- Drafting letters
- Routine, and increasingly more challenging, communications with opposing counsel and clients
- Preparing pleadings
- Preparing discovery demands
- Responding to discovery demands
- Organizing facts and data, making time lines and spreadsheets
- Attending client meetings and taking notes
- Electronic discovery work
- Preparing materials that partners need for depositions, oral arguments, trials, etc.
- Preparing records on appeal
The following are some examples of what you will likely be doing within the year:
- MORE legal research
- Drafting simple, an increasingly more complicated, motions
- Arguing the motions you draft
- Inquests
- Defending depositions on cases you are very familiar with
- Greater interaction with clients
- Routine, and increasingly more complicated, settlement negotiations
- Trial prep
Within two years:
- More legal research
- Harder motions
- Taking depositions where appropriate
- Second seating trials
Will I have enough supervision, or will I be left on my own?
You will be adequately supervised. Every day will be a training experience. Moreover:
- I conduct formal weekly trainings on a variety of topics.
- We have a great computer system and we have many documents automated so they are easier to draft, and we have a great database of samples.
- I am an excellent teacher and a pleasant person to work with (at least I think so), but, although I am always around and accessible, you will not be working with me that often, inasmuch as most of my job these days is directing the firm and its growth. Jay Itkowitz is phenomenal teacher, but he is a tough person to work for. Don Harwood is a [REDACTED] teacher, but a brilliant lawyer, and often people learn more from him than from anyone.
What benefits do I get?
We can provide you with greater details on the following if you need to know it before accepting the job. In general:
- United Healthcare-Oxford Health Care after three months on the job and the employee pays twenty-five percent of the premium
- Long Term Disability
- TransitCheck
- We pay your salary while you are serving jury duty
- We pay for some of your CLE
- Discounted gym memberships available
What is the technology like at the firm?
The technology here is excellent. Truly as good as you will find at any firm, anywhere.
- We have two full time technology specialists on staff
- Everyone has a modern desk top
- Everyone gets a Blackberry
- We use Word, Excel, and the other Microsoft Office Suite products
- We use Outlook for email
- We use Amicus Attorney for contacts, time keeping and calendaring
- We use Worlddox for document management
- We use HotDocs for document generation
- We use Summation for litigation support
- We use Adobe a lot
- All these programs are easy to use
- I run frequent computer trainings
- We scan and code every single paper in every single case, from motions and exhibits to hand written notes. We have a full time staff member who does nothing but coordinate the scanning of all documents and the proper coding thereof. Therefore, we aspire to have a "paperless" office.
- We are a fully e-discovery capable firm! We have the leading case on E-discovery in New York.
What are the expectations with respect to attire?
Business very very casual. We do not dress up everyday. We do not have the type of clients who drop by the office. Typically, client meetings are scheduled in advance. So we only dress up when we have to be at a meeting or in court. We all keep suits on the backs of our doors. This makes life much easier.
What are the support staff like?
There are six well trained paralegals. We do not have secretaries. An example of how things work is as follows: an associate drafts a letter and prints it out and gives it to a paralegal to scan and mail; or, an associate drafts an affirmation, then the paralegal (working in close conjunction with the attorney) makes the litigation backs, copies the exhibits, assembles the papers, serves them, does the affidavit of service and files it.
Can I ever work from home?
Probably and eventually. The first year or so it is important for you to be present in the office. But we currently have more senior associates who, when on large research projects or document review projects, will work from home. We can give you the capability to sign in remotely.
What is the environment at the firm really like?
The environment is generally casual, collegial, organized. But, frankly, if you are a very sensitive person this is not the job for you. Periodically tensions can run high in an environment like this -- we are a small shop with good clients. These clients expect as much from us as they would from a large firm. The quality of our work rivals that of any firm - large or small. Jay Itkowitz and Donald Harwood bring a comprehensive approach to solving our clients' complex problems that is both scholarly and strategic, and leaves no stone unturned. Therefore, the work is demanding. The pressure can be intense with high standards and tight deadlines
The following comment comes from an actual associate here, "The reality of a small firm is that every one interacts with everyone else. Unlike a large firm, there is nowhere to "hide" and be just a "cog." Additionally, because it is a small firm, everyone must shoulder their share of responsibility. You must stay on top of things, and if a ball gets dropped, you will need to answer for it."
The upside, in my opinion, is that the pressure is a function of challenging work, and not of challenging people. It being a small group of carefully selected people, there is no "back stabbing" or other non-productive nonsense here.
Is the advertised salary negotiable?
No. The salaries are in lockstep depending, generally, on the year of graduation. Everyone in the same "class" gets the same money and people know what to expect for raises. There are no annual bonuses; although there are occasionally bonuses when a contingent fee case fee is collected.
As the market for young associates rebounds, our intention and hope is to keep the salaries as competitive as possible.
Why did the person I am replacing leave?
[REDACTED -- DEPENDS ON THE HIRE.]
Are there opportunities for advancement for me in this firm?
That, obviously, depends.
Recently we have increased our case load, hired more lawyers, and raised salaries. Moreover, we are developing a group of mid-level associates, capable of supervising more junior attorneys. It is conceivable that this job could fit in with a young attorney's longer-term plans, depending on what that person is seeking from his or her career. So far, on average, associates remain here for about 3 years.
I have a great resume. What are the other candidates for this job like?
Maybe you were not going to ask this question, but it is a good one, isn't it?!
Every time I place an ad, the candidates that apply get better. Of course, to a certain extent, this is a function of the ever more terrible market. I like also to think, however, that it is a function of the increasing robustness of the firm over the years. Moreover, I work very, very, very hard on recruitment.
[THE FOLLOWING ANSWER OBVIOUSLY DEPENDS ON THE HIRE, THIS WAS THE MOST RECENT ANSWER] So, to answer your un-asked question above, I extended 12 offers to interview to some great candidates, including yourself. As of this writing, 11 have gotten back to me. They are from the following schools this time: Fordham (5), NYU (1), Michigan (1), Brooklyn (1), Boston University (2), and Cornell (1). Six of them are cum laude. Nine have writing credentials; 3 were published. Three were on moot court.
There are several reasons that I am interviewing so many people. I need to speak to a large group of people because it is difficult to tell who is out there. The market is constantly changing, the economy is in flux, the time of year effects how many people are looking, etc. Furthermore, it is simply impossible to tell who a person is from a few pieces of paper, a writing sample and a resume. Inasmuch as I am looking for a good fit between the new person and the very collaborative group that we have here, I have to check out a wide sample of applicants. Finally, we are probably going to be hiring two people, a person to replace the guy who left and a person to fill an expansion slot.
What kind of time table are you on? When do you need the new person to start?
[REDACTED. OBVIOUSLY, THIS DEPENDS ON THE HIRE, BUT THE TIMETABLE IS USUALLY VERY TIGHT AND WE ALWAYS STICK TO IT.]
How are cases staffed? How are assignments handed out?
Every case has a partner and an associate assigned to it. If and when the case needs further staffing, there are typically other associates assigned to the case as well, ie. secondary associates. The secondary associates may come in and out of the picture, but the main associate on the case is there from beginning to end.
We choose who the main associate on the case is by taking the following into consideration: whose case load is currently the lightest; who has worked on that type of case before and is, therefore, familiar with the area, or alternatively, who has not worked on that type of case before and needs to learn something about that area; does the case require a more senior associate or could a more junior associate handle it.
How will I get feedback? Is there a formal review process?
We do not have a formal review process at this time. We are considering implementing one. But in an environment as small as this one, honestly - you will not be wondering what your strengths and weakness are. That becomes apparent very quickly. We give a great deal of feedback, both positive and constructive. This is part of the natural process in an apprentice profession, which is what the law is - an apprentice profession. Look at it this way - it is in the firm's interest to capitalize upon your strengths and to help you improve upon the areas in which you need growth.