It's all supply and demand
Why everything in the legal industry feels so competitive, and how you can find a niche where demand exceeds supply
If you feel like you did everything you were supposed do, but advancing in your career seems to keep getting harder, it might be because you're in a bad supply and demand situation in your specific market.1 Today I’ll explain why this happens to lawyers more often than most.
In the legal profession, you’re taught that there are formulas to success. I remember being told to go to a top school, get a clerkship, and work at a Biglaw firm because it would give me lots of lucrative career paths. To me, law was fairly simple—if you did certain things or followed certain steps, then rewards would inevitably follow. Or so they said.
The career formulas don’t always work
The problem is, everyone else gets the same exact advice. Which means everyone crowds into the same places—the same schools and jobs, leading to an oversupply of candidates. Which leads to all sorts of anomalies. Like having to beat out 99% of other test takers on a standardized test, just to get into one of the top schools—despite the fact that the test says nothing about whether you’d be a good lawyer.
You need that high score to get into a top school because you need that special line on your resume. Because when it comes to access to career opportunities in the legal world, credentials are everything. Especially if you’re trying to access the lucrative world of large law firms.2