Peer to Peer Magazine

CULTIVATE YOUR CURVES USE THESE HELPFUL RESOURCES TO DEVELOP IDEAS FOR THE NEXT CURVE IN YOUR CAREER TWITTER: Follow Brazen Careerist @BrazenCareerist BLOG: Read posts by Whitney Johnson http://whitneyjohnson.com QUORA: Share knowledge and career advice www.quora.com/career-advice/how-do-you-know-when-its-time-to-leave-your-current-company-and-move-on ARTICLE: Read "Learning Curves on the Career Path" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/education/26JOBS.html BOOK: Read Clayton M. Christensen's "How Will You Measure Your Life?" www.measureyourlife.com I mailed letters to 60 law firms in New York asking if they would hire me. Since I had chosen the firms on this list without knowing much about the New York legal community, I wasn't sure what return I would get for my effort. One firm sent back a charming letter saying while I sounded like a stellar candidate, their firm had only two lawyers and could not support a summer associate program. Another firm wrote to say that while I didn't sound like a good fit for their summer associate program, they would be happy to talk about full-time employment. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I agreed to stop by for an interview. That began my relationship with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. My original plan had been to work at Debevoise as a litigator for three years (one year for every year spent in law school) and then find other work that caught my interest. I initially wanted to become a member of Debevoise's world-renowned international dispute resolution group. To its credit, Debevoise made that possible and then, just a few months later, allowed me to move to its corporate department when I determined I did not have the right personality for arbitration matters that extended over many years. I discovered I preferred the quicker pace of doing deals. Being a deal lawyer was fabulous. We had great clients who brought us interesting business challenges to solve. I had the good fortune early in my career to have supervising lawyers who gave me responsibilities that allowed me to stretch and grow professionally. At one point, I was representing our client in complicated negotiations for a type of multiparty joint venture that had never been tried before. The other parties were represented by senior lawyers from large firms. Toward the end of the negotiations, one lawyer (a partner in a major international firm) asked me how long I had been a partner at Debevoise. I had to confess I was a fifth-year associate. That deal was in the telecom industry, and it was the first opportunity I had to work with engineers and learn about the inner workings of technology companies. That was when I discovered the existence of the Internet Protocol and virtual private networks. It was the mid-1990s, and the world of technology was new to me. After that deal, I participated in acquisitions of software companies and even worked on an Internet startup that fell victim to the end of the dotcom bubble. By 2001, I had been practicing law for 10 years, and I knew it was not something I wanted to do forever. More specifically, I knew that while the rush of a deal could be fun, I wanted to build things that seemed more enduring to me. Since I didn't know exactly where I could find work like that, I resigned so I could hunt for the right project. What I didn't know when I submitted my resignation was Debevoise had decided to invest more in their knowledge management (KM) program, but wasn't sure how or where to find the right staffing. They knew their KM program could have a profound impact on their client services, so they wanted to recruit someone who already had the responsibility of representing the firm's clients and understood how to deliver the high-quality work product for which the firm was known. They also believed a knowledge management program required change, and this change would be more attainable if the change agent involved had established relationships within the firm. So Peer to Peer 27

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