You are indeed making "a big leap" changing from the practice of matrimonial law to an intellectual property area. It is important not to rush into such a change and make sure you are making the switch for the right reasons. Is IP where you feel your skills and interests lie? Talk to others who practice in the area and make sure that this move will bring you closer to your ideal job. It is important to keep in mind that switching practice areas will likely mean accepting a cut in salary and in seniority.

A practice switch is difficult in any case. But it is more likely to be doable the more junior the candidate is, the more a candidate has prior relevant experience in the area (whether in law school, in a published note, or in non-legal work) and the more a candidate's current firm is open to the prospect.

The longer you have practiced in an area the more pigeon-holed you become and the harder it is to switch. In most cases the reality is that if you are more than three years out of law school and without any prior experience, it is unlikely that you would be able to make the switch absent the unlikely scenario in which someone presents you an opportunity.

An LL.M. in intellectual property is somewhat unusual. The test as to whether employers value an LL.M. in IP would be to ask the deans and administrators for these programs for placement statistics. How many people with similar backgrounds to yours have used the degree to land a job? How well did they do in the program (and what were their grades and work experience prior to entering the program)? What is the process for on-campus recruiting? What types of firms recruits from the program? Speak with alumni from the program who are currently working and ask them for their advice. If these questions can be answered to your satisfaction, then the program may indeed help you switch practice areas. Best of luck!

This answer assumes that though you were on disability for 18 years you are now ready to reenter the work force and are able to perform all the necessary work-related tasks.

You are not alone in the challenge of returning to practice after a lengthy absence. To be successful in your search, you will need to be focused in your approach and be diligent in your follow-up.

You should begin by determining where you see yourself, i.e. your "15 second elevator speech". These are the same points that you should delineate in your cover letters and emphasize in your conversations with recruiters, whether at a law firm or a placement agency. Remember that law firms have a reputation of thinking in a traditional lockstep classification based on year of law school, and you will have to take the lead in figuring out where best you would fit in. You should attempt to explain the gap in your resume to the extent that you are able and comfortable in doing so. Be sure that all your professional accreditations are active.

On a practical side, you should try to reach out and network with as many former colleagues and professional and personal contacts as possible and explain what you are looking for. For example, St. John’s University School of Law has an "Alumni Lawyers Network" who assist other alumni with career guidance. You should talk to as many people as possible about potential opportunities, go on informational interviews and seek referrals from others, particularly learning from others who have successfully reentered the legal workforce.

This is process: the more contacts you make, and the clearer you are in your approach, the greater your chances of finding the opportunity that is right for you and right for your future employer.

Good luck with your search

The large New York law firms frequently employ a number of Staff Attorneys in addition to their roster of Associates. These Staff Attorney positions tend to have set hours and pay more modest salaries. Beyond these characteristics, the positions can vary widely. At one end of the spectrum, a Staff Attorney could be hired out of law school specifically for junior-level document review. At the other end of the spectrum, a Staff Attorney may be a former Associate doing high level work who has chosen to transfer into a Staff Attorney position in exchange for a shorter workday. The career opportunities arising from a Staff Attorney position also vary depending on the Staff Attorney's experience level, market forces and professional relationships. One former corporate Staff Attorney became invaluable after six years of handling derivatives documentation and was offered an Associate position at a large New York law firm. Granted, this was an unusual situation. The market in derivatives was booming and the supply of derivatives lawyers was insufficient to meet the market's demands.

A more common scenario is that of a recent law school graduate whose grades and extracurricular activities did not meet the requirements of the large New York law firms and who took a position as a Staff Attorney doing document review as an alternative. The frequently asked question in this context is whether such a Staff Attorney will be able to parlay the Staff Attorney position into an Associate's position. While there are always exceptions, the answer, more often than not, is no. There are two main reasons. First, large law firms place great importance on academic credentials and a stint as a Staff Attorney, even a stellar Staff Attorney with a great attitude, will not usually erase a mediocre academic performance in the firms' eyes. Second, document-review work does little to exercise and develop lawyering skills so it does not add valuable lawyering experience to a resume.

Just as there is no one kind of Staff Attorney position, there is no one way to seek such a position. The higher level positions are generally obtained through personal contacts and referrals. If on the other hand you are looking to do document review or other junior level work as a Staff Attorney, you can call the firms' human resources departments and inquire if they hire for these positions. Every firm has a different policy on Staff Attorneys. Alternatively, you could get this work through a legal placement firm. If you take this route, you will be a "contract attorney" who is employed by the placement firm rather than a Staff Attorney employed by the law firm and the placement firm will take a cut of your hourly wage.

If your objective is ultimately to get hired as an Associate by a large New York firm, your best bet is to find a position somewhere else where you are challenged, engaged, and gaining valuable lawyering experience.

Receiving negative feedback in the workplace can be very difficult, but when negative feedback comes in the collective form of an overall “bad” evaluation it can be devastating to one’s professional ego and sense of mastery. That being said—there is life and career after what you call a “bad” evaluation if you can identify and find some constructive lessons that you can use in the future.

First, it is helpful to reframe the term “bad evaluation” by really understanding its purpose and message. This might be hard initially—but at some point ask yourself how much of the evaluation was on target and how much was unfair? What parts of the evaluation do you believe have merit and which parts do not? At the end of the day—how much you internalize and learn from the negative feedback—is your choice. With a little distance and time, you might be able to glean some important information about what is expected of you, what benchmarks need to be met, how best to garner support and help from your workplace and what substantive skills need to be improved.

Now onto the comeback part of your question. Armed with this new information about how to improve your skills and what areas need development, enlist the support of more senior attorneys, mentors, partners and professional development individuals to help you improve and hone identified areas of weaknesses. The “comeback” part rests squarely on your shoulders.

By focusing on what can be learned and changed, setting a course of action for either obtaining those needed skills or enlisting the support of others you start to lay a strong foundation for a comeback in attitude, in mindset and in results.

First of all it is worth noting that the if the firm asked you to actively participate in the summer recruiting they must also notice something about your natural skill set for this type of position. In best case scenarios, good law firm recruiting involves being naturally likeable, socially comfortable meeting new and introducing new people, having sophisticated liaison skills and stealth troubleshooting abilities. It is not an easy job but for those who gravitate naturally to this position it can be a very fulfilling, social and meaningful way to add value to a firm and its very pivotal goals of attracting and retaining top legal talent.

That being said, your firm may have noticed these skills in you but may be surprised to hear that you wish to transition from practice to management. The best course of action is to do your due diligence with lawyers who have made that transition but who are not working at your firm. As part of your initial inquiry you might ask about the nature of the work, compensation and career growth potential. A good source of information for this is NALP and their programs and membership.

Once you have completed some initial inquiries and have really determined that this transition is for you—it’s time to leverage on your insider knowledge of the firm and the good will that you have built at your firm! Once you are certain that this is something you want to do, speak to the professional development department of your firm, inquire about possible position openings and suggest ways in which you might be able to add value to that position. Talk to partners that you work with only once it is clear that there is a position that you wish to be considered—these partners might be able to help you in your goals as well.

Finally, there have been several instances where lawyers have made their intentions to transition known to their department and yet they continue to work as lawyers until landing the job at their firm comes to fruition or until they have been able to secure a job like that elsewhere.

At the end of the day, if you are determined to leave the law to transition into management, it is probably best to let the partners who like you and respect you help you in the process. They are going to find out eventually, so you might as well maintain your good will with them by being the one to tell them so they are best inclined to help you in the process.

To get a job in Intellectual Property, your resume must reflect this interest. The key is to make it easy on the person reviewing your resume to understand that your area of interest is indeed IP. I suggest your past job descriptions focus (only if applicable, of course) on work you've done in this area. If you don't have a background in IP, then you need to demonstrate your interest by listing your involvement in your school's IP club or other relevant activities. (If your school has no such club, then create one and be the founding member!) Nothing is less impressive than a candidate who claims interest in one area, but who has not made any effort to educate him or herself or become really involved in that area. You should consider whether you're more interested in the litigation or corporate side (as IP tends to straddle the two), and make sure you tailor your coursework appropriately. The more you know about who you are and what your looking for, the easier your search will be. IP is a relatively small specialty, and so if you want to focus solely on IP, you will need to present yourself as a competitive candidate.

As for chosing an appropriate firm, as you must know, there are boutique firms as well as IP departments within the world's largest law firms. At this stage of the game, the large firms have already hired their summer classes, so you would likely have more luck with smaller firms. Like any other law student, you should consider a firm's culture to ensure that it will be a good fit for you. You will need to spend a great deal or time and effort determining what positions out there will provide you your best opportunity to grow professionally, but in the end you efforts will be rewarded. Though it is not appropriate that we recommend any specific firms, there are many websites that do rank firms based on such things as pay and work life balance and you may want to explore one of those. You may wish to search for firms with an IP practice on martindalehubbell.com and then research the culture of those firms on a site like vault.com.

Good luck.

The answer to this question is really dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case and is ultimately a judgment call. Nevertheless, here are some factors to consider. If this is a typical large New York law firm, it is unlikely that you will have made a sufficient connection with the partner to call him or her directly. In addition, large law firms have formal recruiting processes and it would be more appropriate to contact the recruiting office or to ask your friend to do so on your behalf. One week is not a very long time in the life of a busy law firm. It can often take at least a week for a large firm to collect comments from the lawyers with whom you interviewed.

If, on the other hand, we are talking about a small firm without a formal recruiting process, you may have no choice but to contact the partner. An alternative, however, may be to contact your friend. You also may consider waiting another week, assuming you have the time to do so.

Ultimately, if you do choose to contact the partner, you may consider sending an email because an email is easier for a partner to respond to than a call.