Page 16 - Palm Beach Vol 6 No 2
P. 16

HiringYoungLawyers By Gary S. Lesser
Over the last few years, we have heard two mantras repeated: Law firms really aren’t hiring anymore, and it’s really hard to hire a good young attorney. The first statement is changing, and the second state- ment isn’t really true either.
Many years ago, the expectation of a law school graduate was to have at least one or more job op- portunities lined up.  e job market has been frozen for many years and has been gradually coming back to life for law school graduates and young attorneys in general.  ere is a general knock, however, on the so-called “young lawyers” or “millennial lawyers” that they are di erent and just don’t work hard like older lawyers still do ev- ery day.  is is a classic half-truth in that there are older and younger lawyers, some of whom work very hard and others who don’t work nearly as hard.  e younger generation is getting an unfair reputation, and hiring the right younger lawyer is a tremendous bene t for any law  rm.
Our  rm committed to trying to hire younger lawyers a few years ago, and it did take a while to  nd the right people, but in the last year and a half, we have hired two young lawyers who have been
tremendous additions to our  rm. For many reasons, we wanted to encourage other law  rms, big and small, to take a closer look at hiring new or younger lawyers, as the right hire will be a great move for the future of your  rm. And it’s a smart business deci- sion too.
In the summer of 2015, our  rm participated once again in the Diversity Internship Program (DIP) of the Palm Beach County Bar Association.  is gives law  rms and law students the op- portunity to make a good match, and law students with a diverse background have the opportunity to get a summer clerkship.  e  rm ended up bringing Laura Scala on board as a law clerk that summer, and we were so impressed that we o ered her an associ- ate attorney position for a year down the road when she would graduate law school. Fortunately, for all of us, she said yes and has been at the  rm ever since. Laura was born and raised in this com- munity, grew up with her family and the law and has a passion for helping clients, Bar involvement, and helping others in the com- munity. In fact, she has taken a leadership position with the DIP program, as well as the local chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers (FAWL).
Similarly, the  rm has been growing in South County and we looked for quite a while until we found the right candidate in Ali- cia Zweig. Alicia has been out law school for a few years, having worked primarily for a prominent insurance defense  rm, and came on board to work out of our Boca Raton and West Palm Beach o ces. She was another excellent hire. Why? Because she had deep connections in the Boca Raton and Parkland area, a real passion and high energy level for her legal work and her com- munity involvement. She literally hit the ground running and has
Angel Adams


































































































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