Minzel & Associates, Inc. has placed attorneys and legal professionals with law firms, corporations, and government agencies in the greater Boston, Chicago, New York, Portland, Seattle, and Washington DC regions. Through our placement efforts, we have developed personal relationships with the decision makers at a variety of law firms – from the largest to the smallest. We know who they are, and we know what they are looking for.

We see great candidates struggle to find positions. While the market has a lot to do with this, many candidates fail to identify obvious issues that reduce their effectiveness. Because of the desirability of living in this region and the recent economic downturn, you must be as competitive as possible. The vast majority of issues that we identify are easy to fix. The typical candidate is simply unaware.

Minzel & Associates, Inc. has developed a twelve-chapter internal manual on the job-search process in the legal community. It focuses specifically on characteristics that are unique to the legal community. The primary source for our materials has been all that we have learned through making placements over the last six years. The secondary source for our materials has been what experts in the legal-placement industry have to offer.

Career Counseling: While we offer specific tutorials that we discuss below, we feel the best way to start is for you to have an introductory meeting with a career counselor. You and the counselor can discuss your goals, your struggles, and your perceived strengths and weaknesses. From there, you and the counselor develop a game plan that efficiently takes you exactly where you want to go. All of our counselors are lawyers, have been trained as career counselors, and understand the legal market. Our materials cover the entire search process. The following is an overview of our most popular tutorials:

• Analyzing why you may be struggling to get interviews or job offers. This tutorial analyzes all aspects of the job-search process and identifies areas for you to focus your attention. This is a great place to start.

• Analyzing what type of work, whether legal or non-legal, is right for you.

• Analyzing your strengths to determine what legal subspecialty would be the best fit.

• Finding and developing job leads in the legal market.

• Drafting the correct cover letter: this involves research, knowing your audience, and knowing your objective. This is one of the most common areas that people make mistakes.

• Drafting effective resumes: we focus on appropriate content, visual presentation, layouts preferred by legal administrators and hiring attorneys, content that you should never include on your resume, when and where verbs and nouns (i.e., elements of speech) are most effective to describe your skills, appropriate length, how to present your education and work history, and how to track your resume once you have submitted it.

• Effective follow up.

• Interviewing: we look at appearance, what legal administrators and hiring partners look for, preparation, questions that you should be prepared to answer, questions that you should be prepared to ask, illegal questions, strategies for asking and answering questions, pre-interview checklists, and different types of interviews.

• How to succeed after you have accepted your permanent or temporary position. Jeff Minzel, who worked as an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine for a number of years, has developed through his own experience of working for a large law firm and his experience placing legal professionals, a comprehensive tutorial on how to succeed in the law-firm environment.

• Transition into or out of the legal profession.

The cost of our career counseling services is $125 an hour. Package deals are available. Please call for details.

Resume Services: Throughout the years, we have reviewed thousands of legal resumes. We know what works and what doesn't. We have developed a resume program that we believe balances thoroughness and cost. The process is as follows:

1. We begin the process by sending you the materials that we have developed on good legal resumes. This involves a page chapter and examples of excellent legal resumes. Some of the topics addressed include appropriate content, visual presentation, layouts preferred by legal administrators and hiring attorneys, content that you should never include on your resume, when and where verbs and nouns (i.e., elements of speech) are most effective to describe your skills, appropriate length, how to present your education and work history, and how to track your resume once you have submitted it.

2. We then ask that you review the materials, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your current resume, and redraft your resume to eliminate any weaknesses.

3. You will then send us your revised resume. A career counselor will review and analyze your resume.

4. You and the counselor will then meet for an hour to discuss the counselor's feedback.

5. You will then rewrite your resume for a second time, incorporating the counselor's feedback.

6. The counselor will then review this redraft and make a list of his or her comments. The counselor will forward these comments to you in written format.

7. You will then incorporate these comments in a third redraft of your resume.

8. The cost of this service is $195.

We believe that this is the most comprehensive resume service available. It is superior to having us draft your entire resume. You know the facts about you better than we do. Working with us in the redraft process focuses our expertise on format, presentation, and related issues. You focus your time and attention on the things that you know best – yourself. The combined result is an accurate, well thought out, and effective resume at an economical rate.